The Walking Dead Apocalypse
by McGregor's Chaos
Summary: It has been over three weeks since Mary left Tristan, and he has now awoken out of his drunken state to acknowledge that the world has turned into something sinister. He is greeted by a man named Murray Cobbe who tells him about the dead that walks the earth, and they go by the name Walkers. Tristan will endlessly fight until he finds his Mary, but what will he find of her?
1. Take Us Back

The Walking Dead Apocalypse

It wasn't even one hour near opening at the Finis where Tristan would wake up hung over like he had previously been for the past week. The lack of business he had been having had caused him into a drunken stupor, that and he had been completely isolated for the past couple of weeks. Tristan wasn't always alone, in fact most of the time he was either around his girlfriend Maryor his friend and co-worker Scott, but unfortunately for Tristan it was the worst time in history for him to be alone.

As he awoke from his faltering mattress dazzled like usual he asked himself, "What day is it". He had not been referring to the date, but in fact was asking himself how long it's been before Mary left. Tristan and Mary weren't an ordinary couple, they fought consistently and it always ended the same way, unresolved. Mary herself felt like she needed a break from their "relationship" and headed to her home town to stay with her mother for a few weeks so she could have time to think, well that's what she told him at least. As Tristan recollect these distressing memories he opens up the drapes letting the sun hit his face making his headache even more of an abomination

He did his usual routine, prepared the juice box, and warmed up the expired chicken wings and of course the liquor needed to be poured. Tristan's home lives within his own business; however his business isn't entirely his. His friend Scott and he had owned this bar for well over three years after they both left the military. This bar wasn't exactly something to be considered great, but then again the town near by isn't even considered great, so for them it works. This bar wasn't even in the town really; it was around twelve miles away from it. Both Scott and Tristan were never given permission to open a bar within the town, so instead they used the money they earned from the military to make one of their own and away from the town. It only took however long to attract customers, which are the kind that are fine driving twelve miles away from town just to have a drink. However, around the time Scott left for his hunting trip the amount of customers had been diminished the last few weeks to absolute zero.

Another day had passed with no customers at the Finis, and Tristan was always too drunk to ask why. He did however notice that he was running low on food so a run down to town had been needed, maybe he could ask why all his customers disappeared. The coming morning, on a Sunday, he decided to do his grocery shopping, heading into his 1977 Ford F-100 pondering where all his customers had gone.

One half-hour had passed before entering the town. He had a picture of Mary taped on the end of the windshield. Considering it was the only thing he had left of her after she left, he took it with him, regardless of the situation. Getting out of his truck he noticed no one was here. Not a sound worth hearing within the streets of town, not an odor worth smelling of the old hotdog stand that was around, and not a sight worth seeing of the people that this town inhabited.

Walking for about five minutes in the isolated town, he went inside the grocery store only to see it was empty. The smell of old dried out fruit had caught his nose when entering, and Tristan himself was starting to wonder what exactly is going on. The store shelves were about as empty as the streets, all that remained were a few stacks of old expired baby formula along with the milk that was past the date it needed to be thrown away.

Leaving the store with nothing, he noticed a figure about 40-50 ft. away from him, a person. At first Tristan waved and yelled "Hello!" to this man, but his back was turned and Tristan was mistaken with the idea that he did not hear him. He ran towards the individual, but with Tristan's intense hung-over headache it wasn't as quick as a normal person would run. Tristan was pondering everything he was going to as this person, starting with "Where the hell is everybody?" He had finally reached the individual stopping him, turning him around, seeing only that this person was not what he seemed.

This man, who had a face that looked like half of it was bitten off, had the eyes of something that terrified him. Whatever this thing was, it was no longer human. Tristan fell to the ground at the shock of this creature moments before it decided to attack him. It was slow, and Tristan slowly crawled away to get away from this beast. He reached his feet about to run, then seeing two more figures appearing out of nowhere. They were the same as the one behind him, the eyes made that clear to Tristan, and again he fell to the ground thinking to himself what the hell these creatures were before him. He became easily trapped within the three monsters circling him. Right before Tristan thought it was the end, the thought of Mary had breached his mind.

Take Us Back

One gunshot had pierced a walkers head, silencing him to Tristan's thoughts. Tristan looked up and saw the walkers behind also fall to the ground with the sound of a bullet. "Get up!" had been screamed to Tristan across the street with a man holding a revolver. Tristan immediately got up and ran past the final walker running towards this man. More walkers had immerged from the streets following him. Tristan reached this man who appeared to be more human than anything he's seen all day. He was a white male with long curly brown hair with Jefferson glasses on his face wearing black body armor. "Follow me," this man said. Tristan had no time to think, so with his instincts he listened to this man. They both ran into the building, peaking out seeing dozens of walkers coming towards the structure.

As this savior locked the doors sealing off any walkers from getting to them, he asked Tristan the alerting question of "What kind of stupid son of a bitch are you?"

Ignoring this man's question completely, Tristan reply's "What the hell were those things?" in a loud disoriented way.

This man looked at Tristan briefly, thinking to himself "who is this guy, and does he really not know anything?" and as that moment passed he asked Tristan, "Who the hell are you?"

"My name is Tristan, Tristan Oram," he replied.

"My name is Murray Cobbe, now I'll explain everything to you, but not here," said Murray, turning around walking forward telling Tristan to follow him up to the roof tops.

Following Murray, Tristan was losing his patience with Murray for the lack of answers he had been giving him, but he was thinking based on the situation he shouldn't be getting pissed off at the man who just saved his life.

Reaching the roof top, Tristan and Murray looks over the ledge seeing dozens more walkers surround the building. Murray still looking down to the herd says to Tristan, "we're going to have to wait the before we leave, there's no way we can escape a herd this size and get away with it."

Murray turns to Tristan and asks him "Where do you live?"

Tristan is starting to get fed up with Murray, but he replies with "I own the Finis about twelve miles from here. It makes it all clear to Murray now why Tristan doesn't know about the walkers, but at the same time he thinks to himself how it could possibly be so safe there.

"Damn no wonder you didn't know about the walkers," said Murray

Tristan has a flustered expression on his face and responds with, "a walker?"

"You really don't know what they are?" asks Murray, "they're the dead that walks the earth."

"The dead that walks the earth?" Tristan replies still flustered.

"Yeah, it's a little late to ask but you're not bit are you?" asks Murray.

Tristan looks over the ledge at the herd and replies "No, why?"

"If you get bit, you'll turn," replies Murray, "you really don't know anything at all do you?"

With the more answers Tristan gets, the more questions keep erupting inside his head. Tristan has absolutely no idea what a walker is, he started to feel like he was going mentally insane a little bit.

Murray looks up at the horizon for a moment and realizes it's going to be nightfall soon. "C'mon lets go inside, it'll get dark soon, we'll wait till morning to leave," says Murray. Tristan agrees and they both head back inside the building.

About one hour had passed, and all Tristan had done was look out the window at the herd of walkers on the street. The herd had no more intention on the building anymore, but there were still too many of them on the street for Tristan to go anywhere. All Tristan could keep thinking about was Mary; he started to fear that she might be dead. He began regretting how he acted towards her, he absolutely loathed the idea that she was alone with the possibility one of these monsters killed her, or even over the idea that she might now be a walker.

Murray looks over Tristan's shoulder and whispers "hey, you alive in there?" Tristan turns around and immediately responds saying "First thing tomorrow morning I need to go back to my bar."

Murray asks Tristan why, telling him it's pointless to stay in his home, one day the walkers will arrive there.

"I don't plan on staying, I just need to pack some things and leave," Tristan responds. Tristan walks passed Murray from the frustration of seeing the walkers.

"Where you headed?" asked Murray.

Tristan turned and faced Murray saying, "My girlfriend is living with her mother right now, need to find her as soon as I can."

"Alright, I might as well tell you this now rather than later," says Murray turning away to Tristan, "but you might want to acknowledge the idea she might be dead, don't get your hopes up too high anymore in this world."

"What, did you lose your family to the walkers or something?" asks Tristan. Murray slowly turns around back to Tristan with a very enraged look on his face. Tristan feels like he may have opened a door he wished not to walk through. Tristan knew that if he had lost Mary to these creatures then he would feel uncomfortable to talk about it with someone who asked, but at times like these it's best to be honest.

"No," replies Murray, "not exactly like that." Murray is debating with himself whether or not he should tell Tristan what truly happened to his family. He wonders if it's really appropriate to tell a complete stranger about what happened, but then again he realizes that everybody is a stranger to him now.

"Tristan, there's a few things you're going to need to know when surviving in this world, and the first is that the walkers are not the only threat out there." Murray stuttered.

"What do you mean?" Tristan asks.

"My family," Murray paused briefly, "they were taken from me by looters, and fiends who have succumb to the darkness this world spreads." Murray says. Tristan looks into Murray's eyes with fear and intolerance of what he thinks he's about to tell him.

"It was the first few early days when the apocalypse broke out, and I was with my wife and mother, learning how to protect them and survive, but one night everything changed," said Murray.

"What happened?" Tristan asks.

"That night, I woke up and heard my wife scream. I rushed outside and I see a group of men dragging her into a truck, along with my mother tied up in the back. I ran after them, but they drove away."

"Did you ever find them?"

Murray looks back up at Tristan. "Yes," he says, "but I was too late. I followed them, snuck myself into a camp desperately trying to find them. I walked into a tent, and I found my mother…"

"And?" Tristan asked. Tristan started to feel a sense of pity towards Murray at this point. Hearing all this he began to grow compassionate towards him.

"By the time I cut her loose, I the noticed her throat was slit." Replies Murray. Tristan stood there only being able to utter the words, "I'm sorry".

"I left that tent soaked with my mom's blood, and then I entered the next one. There I found a man who had his back turned facing my wife, still alive and tied up. I was angry about my mom, thought I could get even, so I slit his throat and took his gun. I freed my wife; we left the tent and ran for the truck. My last words to her were 'We're going to be okay,' and that was before she looked into my eyes one last time, before she got shot by the two looters. As my wife died in my arms, something inside my mind snapped."

"What did you do next?" Tristan asked.

Murray smiled at Tristan and began to laugh. "I shot both of them in the face with the gun I took, and then I took whatever equipment they had in that shit hole camp and left."

Tristan dropped his jaw and uttered the words, "Murray, I really don't know what to say." Murray began to chuckle at Tristan, and he looked out the window again onto the streets.

"Tristan, if you want to have any chance of finding your lady, you're going to need to know what must be done out there. You will meet people who will try to take what you have, and you must understand that taking a life might be the only way you can protect what you've got."

It had become nightfall, and being Tristan's first real night of the apocalypse it became hard for him to sleep. He kept thinking about Mary and what she might be doing right now, if she's still alive that is. Tristan began to feel guilty about her going to her hometown with her mother. He thought that if he could have just resolved a few things earlier then she might be safe within his arms.

Tristan heard a creek in front of his bed. He got up to look around but found nothing. He was thinking to himself "damn am I imagining things now?" He turned around, and saw Mary within the shadows. He stood there stuttering the words "Mary, is that you?" He walked closer and hugged her. As he leaned away and looked into her eyes, he realized it wasn't Mary; instead it was a walker with Mary's face.

Tristan woke up screaming covered in sweat. He firmly put his hand on his face saying "it was just a dream." He looked out the window and saw it was daybreak. He got out of bed and looked out the window only seeing a few walkers on the street, but it was something he could handle as long as he'd be quiet.

Murray had knocked on Tristan's door twice before he answered.

"Are you ready?" asked Murray

"Yeah," Tristan replied. "Just let me get dressed and I'll meet you downstairs. Murray nodded and closed his door. Tristan put on his white T-shirt and blue jeans. For some reason he went through his pockets, and he found the picture of Mary he grabbed before leaving his truck. He got up, looked at the picture and smiled before putting it back in his pocket. He walked down the stairs to meet Murray.

They ran out the door towards Tristan truck. They saw one walker in front of them. Murray told him he needed the practice, so he borrowed his knife and experience what it's like killing one of these things. Tristan was a little hesitant because he was afraid he would mess up and this thing might bite him, ruining any chance of him finding Mary, but he knew Murray was right.

He walked up to it and stabbed it three times in the chest, but it had no effect. Tristan backed up and asked Murray what he should do now. Murray shouted "Aim for the brain," and that's what Tristan did. Having the knife pierce the walker's brain and fall down, he turned back to Murray.

"It always has to be the brain man." Said Murray.

"Right, I'll keep that in mind," replied Tristan.

They entered the truck and drove off, leaving the town heading towards the Finis. Tristan ran over one walker along the way, looking into his mirror still seeing it crawl towards the truck. He backed up and ran over its head, silencing it. Murray looked at Tristan with disgust, and all Tristan could reply to was, "Hey, you said it always has to be the brain, man." Murray laughed.

During the ride Tristan and Murray were talking about themselves for a while, who they use to be, what they use to do, and eventually Murray asked, "How come I've never been to this bar before huh?"

"Ha, well Scott and I were never good at advertisement," Tristan replied.

"Scott?" Murray said, "Who's he?"

"He's my co-worker and best friend." Replied Tristan.

"Oh, he at the bar right now?"

"No, he left for a hunting trip about 3 weeks ago unfortunately."

"You think he's okay?"

Tristan laughed and said, "I think so, he's one tough son of a bitch, me and him were in the military together."

Murray began to laugh extremely hard at Tristan, and Tristan had to ask why.

"You have military training and the first thing you do is fall on your ass in the middle of danger?" Murray asked.

Tristan also began to laugh. "Yeah I guess so," Tristan replied.

Murray asked Tristan if he still had his tags. Tristan pulled them out of his shirt, not handing them to Murray but just giving him a glimpse. There was about a minute of silence in the car. Murray looked out the window and saw a grass field pass by, with a body that looked like it had been chewed up by walkers. Murray turned back at Tristan.

"So what's your bar called?" asked Murray.

"The Finis." Tristan replied.

"The Finis? Isn't that Latin for…" replied Murray.

"Latin for the end yes," Tristan said interrupting Murray.

They finally arrived at the Finis, and it was a clear as it had been for the past month. Murray looked at it for a moment and chuckled. He in a joking matter said, "Man, no wonder your customers stopped coming here."

They entered the bar. Tristan told Murray to pack anything that looked valuable enough for the road. Tristan went into his room. Packed all his clothes, photos and the shotgun he kept inside his closet. He looked at his room for a moment and was starting to think he is really going to miss this place, but the next moment he remembered that his bed in the most uncomfortable piece of furniture he and Mary had ever slept on.

Tristan walked to the bar, and he found Murray behind it with a bottle of whiskey and a glass. Tristan stopped and looked at him briefly before Murray would do the same.

"You don't mind do you? Forgot what whiskey tastes like." Murray said. Tristan just shrugged giving him the ok. He watched Murray poor his glass and slowly drink the whiskey, and Murray replied, "Man that's good, days like this make you forgot the good things in life huh?" Tristan just nodded.

Tristan walked up and grabbed his own glass to poor. He slowly drank the whiskey like Murray.

"You know, Mary loves Whiskey, I should bring a few bottles." Said Tristan

"You mean if you find her." Replied Murray

"No, when I find her." Tristan replied. Murray had a slight smile on his face, thinking about all the hope inside Tristan. He did not say it, but Murray had praised Tristan for that.

They walked out the bar, and before entering the truck again, Tristan looked at it one last time before leaving it forever. He began to remember one night he had at the Finis. The place was packed with customers, both Tristan and Scott kept pouring glasses full of whiskey, scotch and beer to their lovely customers, and Mary would always order a glass of whiskey, on the house of course. Tristan began to feel a little teary that he was about to leave this place, but he knew he had to find Mary before it was too late.

It was about 45 minutes before Tristan and Murray entered the town again. They left the truck heading towards the same building they spent the night in. All Tristan needed was a map to he could start looking for Mary.

Once Murray had given him his map, they left the building once again to have one final discussion.

"I couldn't be more grateful to you Murray, you saved my life." Said Tristan

"Don't worry about it." Murray replied.

"Is there anything I can do to pay you back?" asked Tristan

Murray stood there for a minute and grabbed his revolver on the side of his belt. He took it out and began to look at it.

"You know, this was the same gun I took from that loot, the same gun that I killed two people with." Murray said. He handed Tristan the gun, and Tristan didn't know what he was doing it for. Tristan liked the feel of the gun, but he would later regret that thought.

"You really want to show gratitude to me Tristan?" asked Murray.

"Yes" he replied.

Murray began to smile at Tristan and cry. "If you really want to pay me back, then you'll kill me right now."

Tristan backed up and shouted "What!" He didn't know what Murray was talking about, why on earth he would want him to kill him. "Why would you want me to kill you, that isn't being grateful for anything"

"I can't live in this world anymore Tristan, I've lost my family. I've been alone for too long. The only thing I ever see is the dead trying to take my life, so please, let me die by an actually living person instead."

"I…I can't," stuttered Tristan. "I'm sorry."

Tristan ran back inside the building towards the washroom. He kept splashing water in his face to get rid of all the sweat. He didn't want to kill Murray, it just wasn't in his blood. The entire reason why he left the military was because he didn't want to see his friends die, let alone him killing them.

Tristan began to imagine himself in Murray shoes. He would be alone every day getting over the loss of Mary, and he asked himself if he could live in this world alone. He then realized it would be the harsh thing to deny Murrays request.

Tristan walked back outside to Murray. He looked at him for a moment and smiled. Murray would do the same. He pointed the revolver at his face and began to cry. Murray began to smile and spoke his final words to Tristan, saying "Thank you."

Murray fell to the ground with a shot to the chest. Tristan fell to his knees and began screaming and crying at the same time. Tristan had now murdered a man. He looked into Murray's cold dead eyes, and closed them. Tristan kept whipping his own tears off Murray's face.

Tristan heard some sounds behind him. He turned around, and there were two walkers right before his eyes. He pointed the revolver at them. He looked for a moment and realized he knew both these people, or at least knew who they use to be. They were a couple who came to the Finis every Friday night. The man would order a tall glass of beer, and the girl would only ever have water. They were a happy couple.

Once again, Tristan began to think about Mary. He prayed to god that she didn't end up like these two. He feared he might have to put down Mary. Tristan noticed the walkers were getting closer and closer with every second that passed. He pointed the revolver back at them, and shot both in the head.

Tristan walked pass the two deceased bodies towards his truck. He looked at the revolver before entering and tucked it behind his jeans. He entered his car, emptying his pockets to get his keys. He found the picture of Mary again. Tristan began to cry again. He looked at the picture and said "Take me back, take us back." Tristan taped the picture to his windshield. He started the engine, driving down the highway towards the next town that awaits him.


	2. One Day

The Walking Dead Apocalypse

At nine o' clock the usual gang prepared their average Saturday night pool game that satisfies them with beer, gambling and the attention of friends. It was Scott who started this tradition. He generally enjoyed having his friends Tristan, Patrick and Neil get together playing a friendly game of pool. It typically was always the same, Patrick would be too drunk to play anymore, Neil would make up an excuse as to why he always lost, and Tristan and Scott would be the last two remaining by the end of the night.

It was quarter past eleven, and Scott and Tristan were finishing one more game of pool, always discussing the same thing, women. Generally Scott wasn't the relationship type, the first relationship he had with a girl was when he was fourteen, and it ended up with her cheating on him with a greasy mullet. Ever since then, Scott avoided getting to know women out of his own self-respect. This however was the time that Tristan was in a deep committed relationship with Mary, but unfortunately for him it wasn't going well.

"So, how's Mary been?" asked Scott. Scott did care about Tristan's relationship with Mary, he could see that Tristan feel madly in love with her, and hearing about their problems made Scott feel ill-hearted.

"Well, we had a fight today, it didn't end well," replied Tristan. "I'm starting to feel like she's purposely avoiding me, she said she's going to her hometown to be with her mother for a few weeks." Tristan began looking down at the pool table, not being able to look Scott in the eye out of humiliation.

"Yeah well, sometimes relationships need a break, you know what I mean?" asked Scott.

Tristan laughed and looked back up to Scott. "Yeah I do, but I'm not sure if you do," Tristan replied, "I mean the last time you were in a relationship was?" he asked.

"Well it's been…awhile," Scott stuttered. Scott as well as Tristan laughed at this.

There was a moment of tension between them, for Tristan became sad at the thought of Mary. Tristan wanted to change the subject to something else, but he couldn't think of one. Maybe just play another game of pool? Maybe talk about one of the girls Scott hooked up with this past week? All the topics that emerged in Tristan's head were one's he wanted to avoid, so instead he asked, "So that hunting trip you're going on is tomorrow huh?"

"Yeah, it'll be fun, maybe I can bring back a deer skin for the bar," Scott replied.

"Yeah maybe, who knows maybe me and Mary will be back together by the time you get back." Tristan replied.

"Yeah," Scott replied.

Tristan began to feel sad again, Scott could see it, and the only thing he could end up saying was "One day it'll all work out," and Tristan nodded.

Scott looks out at the lake regretting his most hasty decision. He didn't like the idea that Amanda went on a run without him, even with Phillip, Molly and Clint there with her. As each second passed, the more aggravated Scott got by the thought of her being in danger by the walkers.

Scott heard someone walk up behind him, but he didn't bother looking. It was Savian, an African-American musician who use to spend his time singing away at his beloved fans in a café. He did not look Scott in the face, but instead looked at the lake like Scott was.

"You know you don't have to worry, Phillip and Clint are there with her, she'll be okay," said Savian, trying to make Scott feel secure about the situation.

"Yeah I know, but I just don't think they could protect her like I could, you know what I mean?" asked Scott.

"I guess I understand where you're coming from," replied Savian, "but you also have to have faith in your friends."

Scott turned to Savian with an irate expression, and he just nodded. Scott did not bother listening to what Savian had to say, although when Scott is alone with his thoughts he does not bother listening to anything he has to say except his best judgment.

Scott and Savian heard footsteps behind them. Like before, Scott did not look, however Savian did. Savian gazed down at the walker that just appeared and poked Scott with panic screaming, "Walker!"

Scott walked to the shore picking up a large thick rock. He ran towards the walker, slamming it across his face. The walker's dead expression had looked more deceased then previously when it hit the ground. Scott used his legs to pin down the walker's arm from possibly scratching him. Scott held the rock above his head, constantly smashing it till it was reduced to nothing. From a distance Savian looked at Scott with fear, thinking to him what made him so upset, apart from Amanda.

One Day

Tristan drove up into the town, Mary's hometown. This is where she said she was where she was born. Tristan went here because Mary had told him she needed a break from whatever kind of relationship they had, so she went to live with her mother for the time being. That was told to Tristan around a month ago, before the dead walked the earth. If Tristan had any luck of finding Mary, he knew this would be the best place to start.

He left his truck, taking out his new revolver, Murray's revolver. He looked at it, and the image of Murray's death kept flashing in his eyes. He looked away, rubbing his shut eyes. He opens them again, looking at Mary's hometown. Just like the previous one, it was deserted, with no signs of walkers around, but at any moment Tristan could be wrong.

Mary's mother's house was two-eighteen on Second Street. As he walked down the road, he noticed all the houses were all slowly crumbling to nothing. Tristan imagined the families that use to live here, the community. Children learning how to ride their bikes, the smell of freshly cut grass, the men getting up in the morning driving down the road heading to work, that was what a neighbourhood was truly like, but not anymore.

He reached house two-eighteen, and it looked as deserted as the city was. He entered, and not a soul to see in present. He roamed the first floor for a while, looking at the old photos of Mary and her family. It wasn't much to look at though, Mary's father did leave her as a child, or that's what Tristan was told at least. What did catch his eye though was a photo that Mary's mother kept when Mary was only five years old, and it made Tristan smile.

Tristan heard a noise from upstairs. He put the photograph down and went to investigate upstairs. He checked the first two rooms and they were empty as can be. He heard the sound of what could have been a whisper from the final room. He looked at the door, terrified to open it, but he knew he had to. When the door slowly opened, Tristan saw an elderly women whose back was turned. Tristan immediately assumed it was Mary's mother, so he ran towards her to greet her in person, and to hopefully find out where Mary is. He turned Mary's mother around, only to see it was not actually Mary's mother anymore.

At first Tristan's reaction to the walker was a little panicky, but he managed to step away from it in time to not get bit. He looked at Mary's former mother in her cold dead eyes and began to feel depressed, not for himself, but for Mary.

Tristan took out the revolver, pointing it directly at the walkers face. Tristan for a moment was a little hesitant about this, but he knew what must be done. Before he pulled the trigger, all he could think of in his head was "I'm sorry Mary," now seeing her mother has been reduced to nothing.

Tristan saw across the room another photo of Mary, it looked like it was taken not too long ago; she looked the same as she did before she left. He looked at the photo and said out loud, "How many of these things am I going to put down Mary?"

Tristan walked out of the house, depressed that Mary was nowhere to be found. That thought quickly changed however when he saw the two walkers approach him from the street. He walked up to the first one significantly close and put it down with the revolver. He distanced himself with the other one, but he was close enough to accurately get a headshot on the walker. Both walkers were now down, and Tristan was low on ammo. He reloaded his revolver ready for the next bunch that would come around. Another walker appeared, and Tristan gazed at it, pointing his revolver at the walkers face to prepare him to fall at the sound of a shell.

Across the street, Tristan heard someone scream "Stop!" Tristan turned, and could see a woman from the distance. She was what appeared to Tristan as a brunette, constantly waving her arms at him. He looked forward, seeing the walker close enough to bite him. Tristan fell to the ground from panic. He had no hesitation this time, and put a bullet in the walker's mouth, silencing him.

The woman from across the street ran towards Tristan. He got up, and started firing at her. The first shot had missed her, causing her to hide behind a car. The second shot had pierced at cars door, being the one the woman hid behind. Tristan hid behind a car himself, reloading his revolver, only noticing he had exactly six rounds left. He was thinking to himself, "Have to make these last ones count." He snuck passed more cars trying to reach the woman. He could hear her breathing, now knowing she was just behind the car he was facing. He ran around the car, pointing the revolver at her face.

She was a brunette with bright blue eyes, wearing a sweater and cargo pants with boots. Tristan could see she was afraid of him. He didn't want to shoot her, so he lowered his gun a little bit. Tristan kept remembering what Murray told him, about how he needs to kill in order to survive in this world. She slightly moved up, immediately making Tristan point his revolver back at her. He kept looking into her eyes, making a very difficult choice of whether he should pull the trigger or not, but that changed when he noticed her eyes were no longer focussing on his, but what was behind him.

Tristan was struck in the head by a man using the end of a shotgun. Tristan was knocked out, now lying on the ground. The man was a Caucasian male, just a little taller than Tristan, who seemed to be lacking in eyebrows. He asked the woman what happened, and all she could say was, "I found him on the street shooting walkers like it was nothing."

The man looked at Tristan, poking him with the shotgun, and that's when the woman asked, "Where'd you find that shotgun Clint?"

"I found it in a white truck not so far back, I'm guessing it's his," Clint replied. "What do you suppose we do with him?" he asked.

"Let's take him back to Phillip and Molly, maybe we can get something out of him" she said.

Clint had a look of confusion on his face about what she just said and replied with, "You want to take back a man who just tried to kill you?"

She looked a little confused herself now. Clint loaded the shotgun pointing it at Tristan's body and said "I say we kill him now and leave his body for the walkers."

"Clint! We don't kill the living," she replied. "I know it sounds crazy, but we can't just leave him here." She grabbed Tristan's arms and said "Here help me with this; every walker in the area probably heard those gun shots."

Clint sighed, putting the shotgun down to grab Tristan's legs and replied, "Whatever you say, Amanda."

Scott walked through the forest with his hunting rifle, tracking down his latest prey. Scott as a hunter wasn't anything special, but due to the military he was able to track and accurately take down his target. He was following the tracks of a deer the third day during his hunting trip. He stayed in a lodge that his father owned, but after he passed away it was under Scott's property.

From a short distance Scott could see the deer. He aimed his rifle down the path to take him down, hoping for that deer skin he promised Tristan. As he pulled the trigger, the deer moves his head slightly enough to make Scott hit the edge of a tree. This caused the deer to run away, frustrating Scott

Scott walked back to his lodge, thinking after today he needed a drink from the town not so far away. Scott, instead of using his car, used his dad's old chopper he kept. Scott as a kid fixated on the chopper, hoping one day his father would give it to him, it didn't happen though until he passed away.

Scott rode into the small town, looking for whatever bar was closest. Scott usually doesn't go into a bar that isn't the Finis, it made him feel jealous that others were more accomplished. It wasn't much of a bar though, but it easily had more customers than the Finis.

Scott sat that for about three minutes before the bartender asked him what he wanted.

"I'll have a scotch." Scott said.

"No problem," said the bartender, "by the way, have you watched the news lately?" he asked

"No why?" Scott asked.

"Well, something peculiar caught my eye the other day, there's a lab in Chicago where a man recently died, but the press won't release what really happened, a little strange don't you think?" the bartender asked.

Scott did not really care about what the bartender was saying, all he wanted to do was drink, so he gave a calm reply, "Yeah, maybe."

"A friend told me that when the world goes to shit, that lab will be our only safe haven one day." Said the bartender, and again, Scott did not engage. Instead, Scott took out his green lighter, beginning to smoke his troubles away in the bar.

Scott kept flicking his lighter, lying on the ground thinking about Amanda. The past hour had been mentally gruesome for Scott, all he wanted to know if Amanda was safe or not. He was thinking about riding the chopper into town to go find her. However, Scott leading the group, he knew he was needed here.

Sean and Hannah came by, asking him how he was feeling. Scott just shrugged for a response; he didn't feel like engaging into conversation with them.

"Scott, we saw the walker by the lake, is everything ok?" Hannah asked.

Scott in a very aggressive way responded with "Yeah, I'm fine Hannah; I don't need you worrying about me." Sean and Hannah then walked away from Scott, them knowing he didn't want to talk to them.

Scott closed his lighter, stood up and walked over to his chopper. He started the engine about to leave, until someone grabbed him saying "Don't even think about it."

It was Wesley, an Asian male with long hair and glasses who was below average height for a person, but only by a little bit. Scott shoved away his arm, telling Wesley to let go of him. Scott looked down to Wesley, enraged by his actions.

"Everyone knows you're upset right now, but you can't leave. What if something happens at camp and you're not here? We need you to be here Scott; it's one of the things as a leader you need to live up to." Wesley replied.

Scott began to calm down, thinking that Wesley was right. He turned the engine off, standing up to Wesley apologizing for his aggressive behaviour. Wesley walked away, thinking that Scott might be thinking clearly now. Scott took out his lighter again, flicking it like before. He lit it, looking at the fire, preying Amanda will be alright. He closed his lighter, walking back to camp.

Tristan woke up, feeling an appalling pain to his forehead. He asked himself what happened. He heard some voices talking not too far from him. He looked up, seeing four people in front of him talking. He quickly closed his eyes again, pretending to still be unconscious. It was then Tristan realized that he was cuffed to a chair, unable to move.

Tristan now remembered what happened. He cornered a woman with his gun, and the last thing he remembered was hitting the ground after someone had struck him. He was thinking it wasn't smart of him to act like a barbarian the way he did, he should've analyzed the situation more and acted strategically like he was trained during his military days, and in his own mind he was face palming himself.

Tristan slightly opened his eyes to look at the people in the room. The first person he noticed was the brunette with blue eyes that he cornered. He was angry to see her again based on his current situation. The second person he noticed was a slightly taller male, lacking in eyebrows, holding a shotgun. Tristan looked at the shotgun closely, and he realized that it was his. Tristan was infuriated by this; he was thinking that this guy must've been the one who knocked him out. The next thing that popped into Tristan's mind was how he was going to be the first one he would kill.

Tristan noticed the other two people in the room. One was an Asian male about his height, and the other was a redhead who looked fairly short. Tristan was feeling agitated by the situation, he had no idea how he was going to escape from four people, especially since the lack of eyebrows had his shotgun.

"I'm sorry so you found him in the street?" the redhead asked Clint.

"Why didn't you just leave him for the walkers?" asked the Asian.

"We couldn't just leave him there," replied Amanda "Plus I'm not very keen on leaving people to become walker bait Phillip."

"Well you guys could have at least asked me and Molly about it first." Phillip replied.

"It was s spur of the moment Phillip, it was either leave him or take him, no time to think, otherwise the walkers would've gotten us." Said Clint

Hearing all this, Tristan was wondering why they would even bother taking him, why didn't they just leave him to the walkers? Regardless of what they did, he still knew he needed to escape.

"What kind of an idiot just fires a gun down the street? Does he not know sound draws them in?" asked Molly.

Tristan heard Molly say this, and he just realized this fact now. The shot that he fired inside the house had probably drew the walkers from the street in, and the shots fired on the streets were probably drawing even more walkers into the area, no wonder they needed to get him out of there quick. Tristan wanted to face palm himself, but he couldn't considering he was trapped.

"So what do we do with him?" asked Phillip. At first they all had no idea what they were going to do with Tristan, Clint himself was starting to regret saving him.

"We could bring him back to Scott; maybe he can make the decision." Clint said.

Tristan heard Clint say Scott and had his eyes wide open, but only for a moment, still pretending to be unconscious. Tristan was thinking to himself if Clint was referring to Scott McGregor, he friend who owned the bar with him. He was thinking it a good chance they were talking about the same person. Tristan was relieved that Scott has survived and has found people. However, Tristan has now made enemies with this group from the moment he fired at Amanda.

"So we should bring him back to camp, as a captive?" Molly asked.

"Absolutely not, he's too dangerous," Clint replied, "Let's just drag him back to his truck, let him wake up on his own, and he can be on his merry way."

Tristan bit his lip from what Clint said. Tristan knew he needed to be brought to this camp to see for certain if Scott was still alive, and if possibly, Mary could be with him. Tristan saw his revolver across from him on a table. He glanced out the window and noticed he was on ground floor, plus the glass looked cracked, something that could easily be broken.

Clint turned to Tristan, and Tristan further acted unconscious. Clint walked over to him, saying he was about to release him from the chair. Tristan's lips shrugged a little bit, he knew he needed to act quick or its nothing. Tristan was thinking strategy this time instead of brute force; however that was going to change. Once Clint freed Tristan from the chair, instead of acting calmly, he smashed his fist against Clint's face, causing him to plunge to the ground.

Tristan quickly grabbed his shotgun. He noticed Amanda, Phillip and Molly coming towards him. He fired one shot to the ceiling, causing them to squirm behind some furniture for cover. In Philips head, he was asking himself who this guy was, and why he's so dangerous. Tristan grabbed his revolver, shooting the window.

Amanda screamed "No wait!" just before Tristan broke through the glass window, running to the street. Molly ran over to Clint, asking him if he was okay. Clint claimed he was fine, even though he wasn't. There was a considerable amount of blood excreting from Clint's nose, and he was only thinking about how he would return the favour.

They all ran outside, still seeing Tristan in the distance. Phillip screamed "Don't let him escape!" and they all chased after him. Tristan hid behind a truck, firing his revolver twice in the air, causing the group to hide behind other cars. Tristan used this opportunity to run into the closest building he saw. It was an apartment building, approximately four stories high. He thought he might have a good chance in there, so he ran inside.

Scott was walking along the path uphill from the lake with Savian. They were discussing how a walker snuck into camp completely under their radar. Savian suggested maybe building a fence might do the trick. Scott didn't think a fence was a terrible idea, but he was disagreeing with Savian with the lack of resources needed for that.

"Well hey, maybe when Andy gets back from his trip to the city then we can discuss defense," Scott replied.

"Yeah but who knows how long that might be, I mean a walker was just in our camp Scott, we can't just pretend like that was nothing." Savian kept mumbling to Scott about the walker, and Scott began to lose attention once he noticed Karin walking up the hill. Karin was a blonde woman, and happened to be Clint's girlfriend.

She walked up to the two of them, asking if the group had returned yet. Savian had a slight giggle and walked back downhill to the camp. Scott turned to Karin, asking if she was ok. She was concerned about Clint, and also that there was a walker that recently entered the camp not even a few hours ago.

"Well Karin, I think Clint will be fine, he's got help, and as for the walker, well were doing our best to figure out how we can make this place more safe from the biters. And you're going to need to learn how to defend yourself as well."

"I suppose…I haven't even put a walker down yet." Karin replied.

"It's either you learn sooner rather than later, the easy way or the hard way." Scott said.

"Is that how it was for you?" Karin asked, looking into Scott's cold blue eyes knowing she just triggered something she was afraid to see.

It was the second week of Scott's hunting trip, and he had finally caught on the trail of the deer. At first it was the deer's footsteps, and the way the bushes were sorted in the forest. Later however, it was something else entirely. He had been following a blood trail now instead of footsteps. Once he turned the other corner of the tree, he found exactly what he was looking for.

He found the deer, and it looked like it was torn to pieces. No hunter or wolf for that matter could have done it. It was something bigger and much more dangerous than that. Scott couldn't get over how bad it smelled, so he turned away.

From the distance Scott saw someone briefly enough before he went out of his visual range. Scott screamed at the man, hoping he could ask him what happened to the deer. He ran up, and saw nothing. He had a brief moment of piece, taking out a cigarette. He looked at his lighter and what was engraved on it, saying "Change does not roll in on the wheel of inevitability", and after he herd the twig snap behind him, his analogy of that quote would soon differ.

A walker had appeared behind Scott, causing him to fall backwards from panic. His sniper was through a small distance from him, slowly crawling towards it. Scott was in arm's reach of the rifle, but he noticed the walker right in front of him. Scott had kicked his ankle, causing the walker to not fall backwards, but instead right on top of Scott. It kept trying to bite him, and Scott was desperately making sure it wouldn't do that.

Scott quickly took out his bowie knife; constantly stable the walker in the ribs, but having no effect. Scott was getting really close to being bitten, and was running out of idea.

He punched the walker in the face, causing it to get off him. Scott quickly got up and grabbed his rifle. It wasn't loaded, and Scott needed it to be, and fast. Scott struggled to take out a bullet, and the walker was getting closer to him every moment. Scott fell to the ground again, but with a loaded rifle. The walker was struck in the head by his bullet, silencing him.

Scott laid back on the grass, breathing heavily from relief. The only thing he needed to do now was figure out was just attacked him. He stood up and began walking to the lodge, thinking he might need another drink.

The group ran inside the apartment, losing visual contact with Tristan. It was a dark apartment building, making things very dim to see. Clint turned on his flashlight, not being able to see Tristan anywhere, and he was thinking he must be in the same dilemma.

"We should split up and find him," said Molly, "does everybody have flashlights?"

Amanda Phillip and Molly all took out their flashlights, two holding Five Seven's and one holding a P99. Clint took out his own desert eagle, responding "If you guys get into trouble just holler, we'll be able to find you, it's not a big building."

Amanda took the stairs to floor three, having Molly and Phillip below her and Clint above her. She pointed her flashlight down the hallway, not seeing anything. There were four rooms apartment per floor in the building. She entered the first one. It was a small apartment, one bathroom, and two bedrooms. She entered all the rooms, all being empty. She walked back out in the hallway, hearing a creak. She pointed her flashlight down, seeing one of the apartment doors open. She gulped from what she was about to expect within that room.

She entered, pointing her flashlight in the room. The first thing she noticed was the bed, completely layered with someone or something's blood and bones. She backed away from the tormenting smell. Basing from the smell and blood texture, she thought that this was something recent.

She walked back out to the hallway, heard someone loading a gun behind her. She put her hands up, slowly turning around flashing her light on the figure. It was Tristan, pointing his revolver directly at her. She was thinking to herself that Tristan was probably going to finish the job this time, and said "Whatever you're going to do, just do it fast."

Tristan slightly lowered his revolver down, and replied "Early you mentioned someone named Scott, what's his last name."

"What?" Amanda replied, being very confused to what he just asked her.

Tristan screamed at Amanda saying "Tell me!"

In panic, Amanda immediately replied "McGregor! McGregor!"

Tristan smiled, thinking to himself how joyful he was that Scott was still alive. Amanda was tangled by why Tristan was suddenly smiling. Tristan needed to figure out how he could see Scott. He knew he needed to earn this girls trust somehow. Considering he tried to kill her a few hours ago, it was going to be difficult.

He looked back up to Amanda, and through his revolver on the floor, putting his hands up. Amanda quickly pointed her Five Seven at him. She was further confused by Tristan's actions.

"I know this is going to sound strange, but you need to take me back to camp, I know Scott." Said Tristan.

Amanda kept her gun pointed at Tristan, deep in wonder about what he was talking about. Amanda remembered something that Scott once told her. He owned a bar before the apocalypse happened called the Finis, and his best friend was his co-owner. Could this be that same person she asked herself?

"What's your name?" Amanda asked.

"My name is Tristan Oram." He replied.

The name Tristan did ring a bell to Scott's past. However regardless of who he is, he still tried to kill Amanda, she kept her firearm high. Amanda was silent for a brief moment; she had a hard time believing that this was Scott's friend, and that he just tried to kill her.

"You pointed a gun at my face when I was trying to help you." Amanda said.

"I know, and I don't know how I can apologize from that," Tristan replied, "but you need to for Scott's sake."

Amanda wasn't showing any sign of trust towards Tristan. After what happened earlier, she feels like regardless of his history with Scott, he is too unreliable as a comrade.

Tristan looked behind Amanda, and noticed a walker sneaking up behind her. Tristan looked back at his revolver making the move to put the walker down.

Amanda replied, without even knowing about the walker, "I can't trust you, I mean after what you did do you really believe that you'll ever have any chance of…"

Tristan quickly picked up the revolver, and immediately had no hesitation to put the walker down. The walker fell, having Amanda turn around seeing what Tristan just did. He saved her, and she couldn't believe it. She looked back at him, and a tremor awoken in her head, and he could see it. He knew she couldn't believe what he just did, and he was thinking it was a good thing; she might be able to trust him now.

He stood up, walked towards her and said, "I understand why you don't trust me, hell I don't even trust me right now." She lowered her gun, and Tristan did the same.

"I recently just left that bar. For more than three weeks I didn't even know about the apocalypse. And Scott, I thought he just extended his hunting trip. I'm just getting use to this world. A man I recently just met told that if you want to survive in this world, then you have to kill to accomplish that."

Amanda was still questioning Tristan's actions, so she asked "Where is that man now?"

Tristan replied, "He didn't make it." He avoided telling Amanda about his death, for if he did she might just abandon her trust entirely. He lifted his revolver, holding the barrel end, pointing the grip at her.

"Scott did though, and I have to see him." Tristan said.

Clint walked up the stairs. Immediately pointing his gun at Tristan. "Don't move you son of a bitch," Clint said, "Try anything and I'll…"

Amanda interrupted Clint with "its fine Clint, he's okay."

"What do you mean okay?" Clint asked

Outside the group was walking back to their cars. Molly Phillip and Clint were discussing how they couldn't believe that Tristan knew Scott. Amanda was walking beside Tristan, and they were silent with each other for a bit

"I'm sorry," Tristan said. Amanda turned to him, not knowing what he was referring too. "For scaring you, if I did."

Amanda laughed and replied "I don't scare easy."

Tristan laughed back and said "I'm guessing Scott took that away from you."

Amanda chuckled. "He does have the tendency to do that to people." She said.

Scott rode into town, seeing the panic in the streets. Walkers were everyone, and all Scott could see were walkers chewing up the remainder of the bodies lying on the streets. He fired and put down two walkers, not being able to save anyone however. He saw the bar he went into a week ago, and just decided to run.

Scott walked in the bar, seeing it was empty. He walked to the bar table, looked over, and found the body of the bartender holding a shotgun. He was dead, and Scott couldn't do anything about. He figured during a situation like this, a shotgun would come in handy, so he reached for it.

The bartender awoke trying to bite Scott. He immediately shot him between the eyes. He looked at him briefly, seeing his name tag. His name was Doug. The last thing Scott remembers about him was his dream of safe haven in Chicago. Scott said "I'm sorry." He grabbed the shotgun, and shut his eyes, praying this man would have peace in the afterlife.

Scott heard a scream in the back alley. He ran to the door and opened it. He saw a brunette woman sitting on a trash can trying to avoid being eaten by the three walkers. He ran outside, firing one round of the shotgun, putting down one of the walkers. He reloaded, only to find out that the shotgun was empty. The two walkers approached him. He tripped one of the walkers, and ran towards the other one against a wall building. He took out his bowie knife, stabbing him in the forehead.

The other walker stood up, walking towards the brunette woman. She screamed again. Scott rushed towards the walkers. He grabbed him from behind, and started bashing the walker's head into the trash can. After about the seventh time he rammed its head in, he realized it was dead. He through the body on the ground and looked at the woman.

The first thing he noticed was her clear blue eyes. He was intrigued by her beauty, completely forgetting about the walkers in town for a moment. He snapped back into reality, remembering the situation. He reached out his hand and said "Come with me."

They ran outside the bar. Scott said "My bike's just over there, if we run we won't have trouble." Scott grabbed her hand and said "Stay close to me."

They ran until they got to the bike. Scott got on, having the woman hold tightly around his waist to leave town.

"What's your name?" the woman asked.

"My names Scott." He replied, looking back into her eyes again.

"I'm Amanda."

It was night time, and Scott was sitting down by a camp fire, playing with is lighter again. Scott was deep in thought about the first day he met Amanda. Whenever Scott is troubled, he takes out the lighter that his father gave him the day he died. Scott doesn't have it because he just smokes, but because it was the last thing he has left that reminds him of what the world use to be like.

A woman in the shadows walked up to Scott, then laying down beside him, but he didn't say anything.

Scott without looking at her said, "You know, fire is an interesting thing, it could kill us if we let it do its work for too long, but at the same time people are too scared to do anything about," he looked at her, "Kind of like the walkers isn't it?" he asked.

"I don't think you have to worry about Amanda Scott, you've made her a true survivalist," the woman replied.

"Yeah, I just wish I had that effect on everyone, wouldn't you say?" he asked. She remained silent.

"You know, we've all lost people because of this plague, and were going to continue losing people until its down to us." He said. "We've lost our friends, our family, and even Tristan."

The woman revealed her face from the shadows, having her blonde hair clearly visible to Scott's face.

"I still don't believe he's dead," Mary said. "Not him."

"Regardless of what might be, I can't imagine the pain you've gone through because of it." Scott replied.

Mary deeply looked into the camp fire, remembering the last time she saw Tristan, and how much she missed him. She regretted leaving him right before the apocalypse, and her guilt grew stronger every day.

"I hope one day you can heal from that Mary." Scott said. They both looked at each other, with a faint smile, not out of happiness, but from Scott's false hope.

From the distance Scott noticed the three trucks that came. Both him and Mary stood up and began running towards the trucks up hill. Phillip Clint and Molly all walked past them. Clint gave Karin a hug, and they both headed back to their tent. Molly ran towards her sister, greeting her with a hug as well. Amanda came running toward Scott. She jumped at him with a very firm grasping hug.

"I was so worried about you, what took you so long?" Scott asked.

"Well…we found a man in the town." Said Amanda

"A man?" Scott said, being baffled by what Amanda said and not knowing what she was talking about.

Tristan came walking down the hill. Scott turned his head and noticed Tristan. He dropped his smile, and thought he was imagining what he was seeing.

Mary turned and saw Tristan. Like Scott, her jaw dropped. She couldn't believe what she was seeing, but what she was seeing made her happy. Tristan looked up and saw Mary. He didn't greet her with a hello or anything, but instead he smiled, and she would do the same.


	3. What Must Be Done

The Walking Dead Apocalypse

One body, blood everyone. He had navy blue jeans on before he died, and a denim jacket, estimated to be a pretty expensive price before the apocalypse broke out. He was an average sized man, and also a very average man like the ones produced in the world today, with nothing to lose, except his friend.

Second body, just as much blood as the last. Cheap worn out dress shirt and leather jacket made this man. You could tell this man fought to survive, maybe put down a fair amount of walkers while doing so. Instead of normal shoes he wore combat boots, generally not great for running either. Grass stains on his torn pants; maybe he fell down during certain life threatening situations.

Both these bodies lied in a sea of their own blood, now victims to the injustice this world represents. No one knows anything about these two men, nothing except that they were dangerous. They fall together, like friends, or maybe brothers, who knows. The only piece of knowledge left to learn about these two, is that they both have one sharp round implanted within their skulls.

What Must Be Done

It was five in the morning when Molly's father began having another seizure. She woke up panicking, screaming for the nearest doctor to help. The doctors rushed in, tying him down, holding a towel firmly in his mouth. Molly would stand in the corner with her sister, crying from seeing their father struggle for his life.

He was around the age of 70, diagnosed with cancer after discovering he had a brain tumour, and the Jarvis family couldn't afford proper treatment. He had been in the hospital for quite a while, but it was drawing near where he would soon move on. As a father both Molly and Nicole, her sister, could not have been more disheartened from the condition, they both loved their father dearly. Molly herself didn't even go home since it started; instead she would go to the hospital every day after work to visit his final days.

"Okay, he's stabilized," said one of the doctors, "but it's getting out of hand." The doctor turned to Molly and Nicole with shame. He explained to them that based on the amount of seizures he's been getting that he won't last the week.

Molly faced her father, with discomfort. She began tearing up from the doctor's news; she did not want him to die. She was thinking about the problem with old age, why it has to be so painful. She grabbed her father's hand, whispering in his ear saying "I'm here daddy."

Molly woke up, walked out of her tent first noticing the lake. She normally went swimming in the morning to wash her troubles away, considering yesterday she just met someone new, and his name was Tristan.

Once her swim was done, she went to her beloved sister Nicole. Nicole is the only family that Molly has left, making her protect her at any cost. Her sister was about her height, with brown hair unlike Molly's red hair. They both to a degree looked similar. One trait about them both is that they were blessed with the same thing, their father's eyes.

Tristan awoke from his real first night of sleep, before the crisis. Beside him was his love, Mary. The first night Tristan arrived at the camp, he didn't even pay attention to the camp himself, and the only thing he noticed was Mary. It was hard for Tristan to sleep that night, all he kept doing was glancing at Mary like an angel. That morning everything had changed for Tristan, he knew his life at made a turn for the better.

Like Tristan, Mary was also very happy to see him again; however she was still cursed with guilt from leaving him in the first place. The first thing she asked Tristan when he arrived was how Tristan managed to get out of that bar. Tristan would explain about Murray, once again leaving out his death.

That morning was the first time Tristan actually felt happy, he was reunited with his girlfriend, and on top of that his best friend Scott is also around. Tristan decided he would meet up with Mary a little bit later and that it was time to visit Scott.

He found Scott out looking at the lake, minding his own business. Scott was a little bit troubled, for yesterday Amanda and the group were meant to pick up something that they weren't able to achieve, and it was all because of Tristan. When Tristan stood beside Scott, Scott did not even bother to look Tristan in the eye at first, but instead asked "So how's Finis?"

"It's all the same," Tristan replied, "Smells like shit, stains on the floor…" Scott turned to him. "But hey, we still make some pretty damn good whiskey." He said.

Scott grabbed Tristan's fist firmly to greet his friend again and said "It's good to see you brother."

"So, you the leader of this place?" Tristan asked

"Well, not at first, but it wasn't up to me." Scott said. Tristan nodded at this, he knew from the military that Scott could make it as a leader with a group; however Tristan knows he can as well. He was thinking maybe him and Scott could be capable of teaching people how to survive in this chaotic world.

"So, we have a couple issues we need to discuss Tristan, first being that yesterday you were the cause for why my group didn't pick up the supplies we needed." Scott said.

"Oh, my bad…" Tristan replied while scratching his forehead. Based on his actions from yesterday, Tristan's surprised that Scott isn't furious about it the situation, he's the best person that knows about Scott's temper, especially from what happened in the military.

"You and me are going back to Mary's hometown to pick up what we need, we can make up for lost times as well." Scott said.

"Alright, but what kind of supplies are we looking for?" Tristan asked.

"Well there's a gun shop just a few miles from the…" Scott said before being interrupted.

"Woah wait, gun shop?" Tristan asked being baffled by why Scott thinks we need guns. "Why do we exactly need guns?"

"Yesterday before you got here, a walker walked into the camp." Scott replied.

"A walker? What happened?" asked Tristan

"Well luckily nothing happened, I put it down, however the problem is that we don't know when more will show up." said Scott.

"So that's why we need the guns?" asked Tristan.

"No, we're going to need them before Andy gets back from Chicago." Scott replied. Tristan looked at Scott with the at most confusion, he didn't understand what he meant by Chicago or why he would need guns.

"Look I trust you and that's why I'm only going to tell you this," Scott replied. He walked up to Tristan and whispered, "This camp will be the death of us."

"What do you mean?" Tristan asked.

"Look around you, a walker easily entered this camp without us even knowing about it, who knows when even more will show up, that's why we need to go someplace safer." Scott replied.

"And that place being Chicago?"

Scott called an announcement to the group and called everybody to meet at one spot in the camp to discuss their new potential opportunities. The majority of the group had thought the discussion would lead to the walker entering the camp form yesterday, or possibly about the newest member Tristan suddenly joining. Either way, this matter required everyone's utmost attention.

"Alright everyone," Scott said in a strong tone obtaining everyone's full attention, "Yesterday a walker entered our camp completely under our radar; luckily we managed to put it down before anyone got hurt. However the problem is that the group I sent on a run yesterday didn't manage to pick up the materials we require."

Clint very irritably stood out from the crowd saying "Well that's not our fault. This son of a bitch here decided it was smart to start shooting at us before he even…"

"That's enough Clint, he didn't know," said Scott interrupting Clint. There was a brief moment of silence in the group, and Tristan noticed Amanda looking down at the ground with disappointment. Tristan knew that Amanda was still shaken up about what happened. He wonders if Amanda has really forgiven him for pointing a gun at her face almost killing her, that's not exactly something one can get over in a day.

"My point is, me and Tristan here are going back to town today to pick up the supplies we didn't obtain." Said Scott.

"No offence to Tristan here, but do you really think that's a good idea Scott?" said Phillip, not even looking Tristan in the eye before utterly insulting him.

Tristan finally spoke out in the crowd replying "Both Scott and I are military trained; none of you have to worry about us gathering supplies." Both Clint and Phillip immediately backed away, neither of them expected Tristan to stick up for himself, and for that matter, to their thought, would act a little narcissistic.

"He's right," Scott replied, "We'll handle things in town, as for the rest of you, for the time being we need to make this place more secure."

"How do we do that?" asked Hannah.

Scott pointed to Wesley and said "Wesley here use to be a scout, I'm sure he can make some kind of trap to keep the walkers away from this place, but for the time being were going to need some kind of patrol to watch the area. Wesley you think you can sort some kind of device to keep walkers at bay?"

Wesley shrugged and replied "I suppose I could try, however it'll take a few days, and plenty of equipment. When you go into town you might want to grab anything you can find specifically for that."

Tristan spoke out again and asked "So who are we going to have on patrol until we get back?" At first nobody said anything, making it a little awkward for Tristan, him not knowing anybody there besides Mary and Scott.

Molly was thinking about her and the group didn't gather any supplies from yesterday. She was thinking that maybe being on patrol will make up for the lack of materials not assembled, so she replied "I'll do it."

Phillip as well felt the same thing Molly did and said "Me too, you can count on us."

The group disassembled, all doing their own jobs for the sake of the camp. Clint began walking towards the lake to blow off some steam, and Karin would follow.

"You really dislike him huh?" Karin asked referring to Tristan. Clint wasn't sure what she meant, making him raise his left eyebrow, regardless of the lack of eyebrows.

"Tristan," Karin said, "you really seem like you don't want him here do you?"

"I don't trust him, I think he's dangerous." Clint replied.

"Scott seems to trust him." Karin replied.

"Yeah, but who knows when that'll go up in flames." Clint said as he skipped a rock along the river.

Tristan and Scott walked up the hills to the white truck and chopper. When Scott saw the truck he immediately laughed and said "I see you're still driving this piece of shit around huh."

Tristan also laughed and said "Well I can't exactly sell it and buy a new one can I?" Before Tristan entered his truck, he noticed Mary walking up the hill. He waited till she got her so he could give her a hug goodbye.

"So you boys heading out again?" she asked.

Tristan replied "Yeah, we'll be back before sundown."

"Well just don't go looking for trouble." She replied

"I won't." Tristan replied as he began kissing Mary. Scott smiled, being very pleased to see them back together; he knew Tristan was as happy as could be. Scott still finds it hard to believe that's Tristan managed to find her in this world. He wonders what Tristan did to survive before driving all the way down here, and if even possible was he alone?

Before Scott told Tristan to leave, he felt someone poke him in the back. It was Amanda, coming to greet him before they left.

"So you guys going back to town?" she asked.

"Yeah." Scott replied.

"Okay just…" Amanda said, then looking at Tristan. She looked back at Scott and whispered in his ear, "Just be careful," and she kissed him on the cheek before she walked away. Tristan entered his truck and Scott started his chopper, both leaving camp heading for town.

Molly and Phillip walked up the hill together, at first discussing how their patrol will work, but that topic was quickly changed once Tristan left camp.

"Do you think it's a good idea letting that guy live with us?" Phillip asked Molly.

"I really don't know, but we should give him a chance shouldn't we?" she asked.

Phillip asserted "He tried to kill Amanda and he almost broke Clint's nose, that could've been us Molly!"

"I'm not saying like him over a day, but we have to try." Molly replied.

"Yeah whatever, here you take the left side, I'll stick to the right." Said Phillip before walking away after being annoyed with Molly's response. Molly was a little distraught about Phillips reaction, but she knew it wasn't worth worrying about, unlike her father.

Molly arrived at the hospital again after work. Molly's occupation is being a high school art teacher. She use to dream of always being a master painter, and her father always supported her. She had immense plans of moving somewhere within California where she would spend her days in the sun painting whatever her heart desired. That quickly changed however, before she met a boy named Everett, falling madly in love with him, following him wherever he wanted, and abandoning her dream. They eventually got married, only to get divorced roughly 3 years after.

When she finally reached her father's room, she found Everett beside her father's bed. At first she stood there speechless. She didn't expect to see him again or at least anytime soon. Before she could utter any words, he said "Hello Molly."

Molly replied, "What are you doing here Everett?"

"Nicole phones me," He replied, "She told me about your father, so I thought I should come pay my respects."

"Nicole phoned you?" Molly said aggressively. At first Molly was irritated. After hearing that Nicole phoned Everett to come down here, she knew what the real reason was. During their marriage, Nicole secretly kept away from Molly that she was in love with Everett. It lead to their divorce, because he secretly felt the same way.

Everett walked towards Molly saying "It's not what you think Molly."

"Oh yeah I'm so sure." Said Molly before storming out of the room. Everett chased after Molly, grabbing her arm from behind. She immediately turned around and pulled away from him frustrated.

He said, "Look, I know you don't want to see me, I get that, but believe it or not I did learn to care about your father."

"Alright, but make it quick," she replied. Everett grabbed Molly's hand, dragging her back to her father's room. One hour had passed where Molly would be forced to listen to Everett's new successful career in the culinary arts, and all Molly had to retort was her pitiful job at art teaching at an art school. She was getting annoyed, she came to the hospital for her father, not to be in Everett's presence, and things only got worse when Nicole arrived.

"Everett!" Nicole screamed. "It's so nice to see you again."

"Like wise." Said Everett has he greeted her with a hug. Molly both stared at them with a dirty look, and Nicole had immediately noticed. She stopped hugging Everett to keep Molly's anger at bay, plus she needed to focus on her father, and not Molly's ex-husband.

"How's he doing?" Nicole asked, regarding her father.

"He seems to be doing better today, but you can never be sure," Molly replied. Nicole pulled up the chair to sit beside Molly. Only for a moment they looked at each other, and there was tension. They both focused back on Everett, avoiding the situation with Everett.

Tristan and Scott arrived in town. Unlike before, Scott lead Tristan near the gun shop this time, avoiding the spot from before.

"Hey Scott." Tristan said, getting Scott's attention.

Scott turned and asked "What is it?"

"I haven't told Mary this, but I went to her house, and…I found her mom." Tristan replied.

"Her mom?" Tristan asked, baffled by Tristan's words.

"Yeah, well…what was left of her. I put her down." He replied.

"I recommend you don't tell Mary about that."

"I wasn't going to." Tristan said. Tristan didn't want to tell Mary because Mary cared about her mother very much, and her knowing that Tristan put a bullet in her brain would lead to something ugly. Scott however, didn't want Mary to find out because of what she told him during the apocalypse, but that's another story.

Tristan and Scott arrived in the gun shop. When Scott opened the doors he knew something was wrong. Since the last time Scott was here, there were more guns. 1 shotgun, automatic rifle and two 9mm's were missing. Scott, avoided that situation and instead focussed on collecting the guns.

Two Mp9's, three M27's, couple P99's, one barett, and two old swat shotguns were grabbed by the two. Tristan also grabbed some body armour and grenades to suffice. They had a full bag of ammunition, locked and loaded for anything that might've come.

They walked out of the gun shop, and peeking out of Tristan's jeans was his revolver. Scott saw and was slightly confused, he didn't see any revolvers in the shop, so he was asking himself why Tristan had one.

"Where'd you get that revolver?" Scott asked.

Tristan took it out of his pants and replied "Oh this, the man who saved my life gave me this."

"Where is that man now?"

Tristan was silent. He remembered Murray's death, how he shot him. He didn't know if he should tell Scott about him either, but either way Scott needed to know, so he replied "Well, before I found you guys I…" right before he noticed the two men at his truck.

Tristan and Scott hid at first, trying to not be seen by the two men. Tristan peeked over, seeing that the men were walking towards them. Scott suggested that they just greet the two men, try not to cause any harm. Tristan said that was a bad idea, however Scott did not listen.

Scott stood up in front of the two men, greeting them kindly. The two men did not have the same reaction however. One of the men attacked Scott, knocking him on his ass. Scott fell to the ground, thinking to himself that Tristan was right. The second man walked up holding a pistol, pointing it right at Scott's face. Scott would then turn to face Tristan, seeing that Tristan was no longer there.

As Scott questioned where Tristan went, the men told Scott to stand up or he will be shot. Scott slowly began standing up with his hands visible to the two men, trying to tell them he wasn't going to do anything tricky. The man holding a pistol loaded his gun, putting it right on Scott's head. Scott began sweating, not knowing what he should do. He was thinking that if Tristan was going to do anything, he should do it quick.

The man with the pistol was struck in the face by Tristan's revolver. The man fell, and quickly Tristan pointed his revolver at the other man saying "Don't even think about it asshole."

Scott stood up, immediately walking towards the man, and he punched him in the face. "I don't recommend you do that again." Said Scott talking to the scoundrel with his bloody nose.

Molly walked through the forest checking for any walkers that could be near camp. She was well armed, one firearm by her side and her knife in her hand. She heard some sounds not too far. She thought it was maybe a walker or two nearby, so she ran towards the sound.

It wasn't a walker, but instead Sean, Hannah, and her sister out in the wild together. Molly put her knife down, knowing there was no immediate threat.

"What are you guys doing out here?" Molly asked. She was a little pissed off at her sister for leaving camp; it was too dangerous for her to be out here.

"We were scouting for walkers." Sean replied.

"With no weapons or equipment?" she sarcastically asked.

"We were just trying to help." Hannah replied.

"Well you guys can help with something else, back at camp." Molly said, implying them to head back or else. They began walking back to camp, but Molly grabbed Nicole's shoulder saying "Not you."

Once Hannah and Sean were gone, Molly would immediately start yelling at her sister. Nicole would go on about how she doesn't feel like she's contributing to the camp, and Molly would reply with how the only thing she can contribute with is the effects that make situations worse, and she was referring to Everett, not the camp.

"You're really going to go there?" Nicole asked, referring to their past with Everett.

"You brought him back into my life, it's your fault that he…" Molly said, being too upset to finish her sentence.

"It wasn't my fault Molly, it was dads." Nicole said.

Molly and Nicole were down by the café, across the street from the hospital. At first they were talking about, but Molly lost her patience and asked "So why did you phone Everett?"

"I just thought that he should know." Replied Nicole, not being able to look Molly in the eye. They didn't talk for about half a minute, Molly knew Nicole was lying.

"Is it because you still love him?" Molly asked.

"I never loved him." Nicole replied.

"When are you going to stop lying, you've always loved him."

"Just because your marriage ended it doesn't mean you have to go blaming me for it."

Molly stormed out of the café, heading back to the hospital. She went in her dad's room, seeing him awake.

"Dad!" she said, being happy to see him awake. She ran up to him, hugging him, and she would start crying. Her dad smiled, and it made her very pleased, before he felt back into a sleep.

The heart monitor began racing, almost making it so his heart would pop. She whispered "Daddy?" and got no response. The heart monitor began going silent, and she would scream "Daddy!"

She got up, screaming for help, seeing her father's life slip away. The doctors rushed inside, trying to keep the old man's heart beat.

The two men were on their knees with their hands behind there back, having a revolver pointed at their face. All Tristan could think about is what he should do to these men, but Scott did not listen to his ideas.

"We should just leave them for the walkers," Tristan said, "it only seems fair after what they just did." Said Tristan assertively.

"Let me talk to them for a second." Scott replied. Scott wanted to learn who he was dealing with. Just like Tristan's situation with Amanda yesterday, it's possible that this is just a misunderstanding, or that's why Scott might to a degree be thinking.

"Who are you guys?" asked Scott. They said nothing. "Not talking to me huh?" Still no reply from either of them. "You guys have a camp around here?"

"Go to hell." Said one of the men, giving the message he doesn't want to speak to Scott. Scott backed away, starting to think that it's useless trying to talk to them.

"You're wasting your time Scott, they're not going to tell you anything." Said Tristan.

Scott looked back at Tristan and replied "Alright, but were taking them back to camp."

"You want to take these two back to camp? We don't even know who they are and one of them pointed a gun at your face." Tristan replied furiously.

"Believe it or not, but some people might seem dangerous at first, but you can learn how reliable they are." Scott replied. Tristan stood there silently, not replying to what Scott said. "I'm going to get the handcuffs from the bike, watch them."

As Scott walked towards his bike, Tristan was deeply looking into his revolver. He remembered what Murray told him before he died, about how he'll need to kill in order to protect him and others around him. Tristan began to sweat, he didn't know if he should listen to what Scott said, or follow Murray's teachings. Tristan loaded his gun.

Scott reached his bike. He took out his handcuffs that he acquired from the gun shop, but that changed once he heard the gunshot from behind him. He turned around, seeing Tristan put a bullet in the brain of one of the men. Scott ran and screamed "No!" right before Tristan fired at the other man.

They were both dead, and Scott wanted to know why. He had no thought to why Tristan just killed them like that. He looked at Tristan and whispered "what did you just do?"

Wesley was deep in thought. He had put together a device that would alert to movement. It was made of string and when pulled would ring a bell, therefore when a walker entered the perimeter, people would be aware.

Sean and Hannah arrived back at camp. Hannah told Sean she would catch up to him later, she wanted to see what Wesley was up to.

"What're you p to Wesley? She asked.

"I think I've made a device that might suffice to what Scott wanted." He replied.

"Really?" she asked, stunned by how much Wesley had done in so little time.

"Yeah, only problem is I don't have nearly enough string to cover the entire camp, or bells for that matter."

"How are you planning to solve that?" she asked.

"Well, hopefully Scott's going to bring back something that might be useful enough to create a perfect wakeup call." Wesley turned and saw Sean from the distance. He asked Hannah, "So how's Sean doing?"

Hannah smiled and laughed with the reply "He really wants to find some way to contribute to what's going on, he's sick of being the clown of the group." Wesley would also laugh.

Clint was sitting down on a log, polishing his shotgun. He kept rubbing his nose, for it was still sore from yesterday, when Tristan punched him. Clint was upset about the camp just letting Tristan join, they don't see what he sees. He finds it hard to believe that Scott and Tristan are friends; they seem like two completely different people he thinks.

Phillip arrived back at camp, directly walking towards Clint. He faced Clint, greeting him with "Hey."

"Hey Phillip." Clint replied while still polishing his shotgun.

"Can I talk to you about something?" Phillip asked.

"Sure, I'm listening." Clint replied.

"It's about Tristan," Phillip spoke. Clint stopped polishing his gun, giving full attention to Phillip. Phillip finished, "I don't trust him."

Clint put his shotgun aside and replied "I don't either, he's dangerous, and I guess you and me are the only ones who can see it."

"What are we going to do about him though?" Phillip asked.

"I don't know about you, but I think we should kill him." Clint replied, making Phillip see the darkness in his eye.

"I might be agreeing with you on that one." Phillip replied.

From behind them, they heard someone say, "I don't think Tristan's the problem." They turned around, seeing it was Savian. "I think the real problem is Scott." Savian said.

"What do you mean?" Phillip asked.

Savian responded, "Yesterday when you two were in town, with Amanda, a walker entered our camp. Scott was angry about the situation with Amanda, and he beat that walker to death. From what I saw Scott put it down quickly, but he just kept smashing its face to the ground regardless of how dead it was."

"Well okay he has a temper." Clint replied.

"Yeah and he took his anger out on a walker abusively. Next time what if there's no walker around for that. His anger could really get the best of us." Savian replied. Both Clint and Phillip were lost for words, they didn't know about Scott beating the walker down so unpleasantly.

"I'm not sure what you guys think of Tristan, but whatever the case is, Scott's just as dangerous as he is." Savian said.

"I doubt that." Clint replied.

Molly walked back to camp, not finding any walkers anywhere. Mary ran up beside her, engaging in conversation.

"Hey, you find anything out there?" asked Mary.

"No, it looks pretty clear out there." Molly replied. Molly didn't know why Mary was suddenly talking to her, they're not exactly close.

"So…What's your take on Tristan?" Mary asked.

Molly stopped walking, looking Mary dead in the eyes. She replied, "A part of me wants to say resourceful, another part of me wants to say dangerous."

"Okay he didn't make the best impression yesterday, but he's not what you think he is." Mary replied.

"Oh, so he's not resourceful?"

"No that's not what I mean."

"So he's not dangerous?"

"That's…not what I meant either." Mary stuttered.

"Let me just give you a piece of advice then. I can see you're very much in love with Tristan, but that can be a curse. The last man I loved ended up dead because of my mistakes, and I wake up every day feeling regretful about it. My advice to you is, don't hang on to love, not in this world." Molly replied. Molly walked away; she didn't feel like talking to Mary anymore.

Molly stood outside crying, seeing the doctors do what they can with her father. She was starting to lose hope, she could see that her father was going to die very shortly; she just wished it would happen already.

Everett appeared behind Molly, asking "What's going on?"

Molly turned around and slapped Everett. Everett didn't understand why she did that. She screamed "You shouldn't have come back!"

Everett stood there expressionless, not being able to conjure what to respond with. Molly kept screaming about how her life was fine before he came back into the picture, and she kept hitting his chest while doing it. Eventually Everett grabbed her arms and stopped her.

She looked Everett in the eyes and began crying. She wasn't upset at Everett; she was upset about her father. She immediately piled her face in Everett's chest while she cried, and Everett would be there to care for her, and right before they kissed, Molly could understand she still loved him.

"I did what I had to do!" Tristan yelled.

"That's what you had to do! You killed them in cold blood!" Scott screamed. They argued for well over ten minutes about the situation.

"Look I know this is hard for you to understand but…" Tristan replied before being interrupted.

"What's to understand, you killed them without my consent."

Tristan didn't know what to tell Scott, so he decided to reveal the entire story with Murray. "Scott, I met a man at the town near the Finis." Said Tristan, getting Scott's attention.

"He told me his story. He had a girlfriend and mother. They were both killed by looters. He told me that in order for you to survive in this world; you need to learn how to put down people, not just biters, in order to protect what you have."

Scott turned away, not being able to look Tristan in the eye. The fact that Tristan actually took lessons from what sounded like a psychopath baffled him, especially after what happened to him in the military that day.

"What happened to him?" Scott asked.

Tristan stopped talking for a moment, trying to find the strength to tell him about Murray's death. He looked at his revolver and said "He asked me to kill him."

"Goddammit Tristan, you did it didn't you?" Scott asked.

Tristan didn't respond, but just nodded. They both stopped talking for a moment, Scott needed time to figure out all this information that Tristan just told him, and he was questioning his trust for him. It hard for Tristan to say what he just said, the thought of Murray made his stomach twist.

"Look, I know you don't like it and I don't expect you to think much of it, but you have to understand that this is what must be done, not just for us, but for everyone." Tristan said, silencing Scott completely.

Scott learned something. Something has awoken inside Tristan, and Scott can see that it's dark. Whatever happened to Tristan in that town that day, he abandoned whatever sense of civilization he had before. It was just like when Tristan was in the war, only this time it really got to his core. Scott stuttered "Lets…Lets just head back to camp, we'll talk later."

Molly and Everett stared down the deceased body. Molly's father has now passed away, and all she wanted to do was throwing up. She no longer cared if Everett was around anymore; she just wished her father was still alive.

Nicole entered the room, looked at her father, and began to cry. She heard the news over the phone; wish is the last thing she wanted. Nicole wished she had been there for her father's death, but that's not something you can take back.

Everett cared for Nicole by hugging her. Nicole just brushed off the hug and stepped towards her father's bed. She started to cry even more, she didn't want to believe her father had moved on. From the corner of her eye she could see Molly starting to tear up as well. Nicole leaned towards her father's ear, whispering "I'm sorry daddy, I'm sorry."

Molly got up from her chair to pull away Nicole from her father. Molly then started hugging her sister, trying to cheer them both up, but regardless of what she could do, she knew that wouldn't happen. To that moment, Molly was glad to have a sister like Nicole around.

Everett decided to pay his respects as well. From the time he was married to Molly, he enjoyed her father's company. He thought he was a terrific man, and that it was sad to see him go. He leaned into his ear and said "It was good knowing you old man," right before her father woke up and bit him on the neck.

Nicole screamed, and Molly was in panic not being able to stutter a single sound. All they could hear was Everett screaming, and they didn't know what was going on. Everett collapsed to the floor, dead from the blood loss in his neck. They looked at her father, looking into his eyes seeing he is no longer who he was. He had turned into something, something to the day known as a walker.

The walker fell out of his bed and began to crawl towards Nicole. Molly quickly rushed to grab the knife from her father's dinner plate. By the time she grabbed it, the walker was almost close to biting Nicole. She quickly ran back to the walker, preparing to put it down. She felt hesitant, she didn't know what her father just became, but regardless she can't find the strength to stab him in the head. She kept hearing Nicole scream "Help! Someone help!" Molly found the strength to defend her sister, and stabbed her father right in the eye. She left the knife in there, not wanting to expel it from his skull.

Molly looked at Nicole and said "Let's get out of here."

Molly was sitting down by the camp fire with Mary, Amanda, Clint, Karin, Phillip, Savian, and Hannah. Usually by this time of the night, the group would tell stories of each other's past, mainly to pass the time. However, tonight everybody was pretty quiet.

"So, nobody got any stories to tell tonight?" Savian asked. Everybody was still quiet, most of them have told their past, at least the parts that aren't too personal to tell for people.

"Sure, I've got one." Karin said. Karin had never told a story before to the group; Clint usually did most of the talking between them. Karin finally decided to speak out this time though.

"So, my grandfather uses to take me to church every Sunday in the morning till I was about twelve, till he passed away. One day he was telling me about I'll never have to worry about dying. He had this fantasy about Jesus being resurrected, and that once he was reborn into this world, he would resurrect every soul that had passed away. That's what my grandfather died believing in." Everybody around Karin started to smile, and she replied, "It's weird too, he ended up being right. I think he had something a little different in mind though." Everybody was speechless again.

"So Hannah, where's Sean?" Phillip asked.

"Oh he's up around the trees planting those bell thingy's with Wesley." Hannah replied.

"What about your sister?" Amanda asked Molly.

"Who knows, I'm done watching her, she can take off whenever she wants now." Molly replied. Everybody had looked at Molly with a slight disgust, but everybody knew she was just angry, no one knew why though.

Tristan and Scott pulled up the hill. They started to walk towards the camp. There was still strong tension between them. Scott was still very much upset about the incident in town with Tristan earlier today, and Tristan knows.

"We don't tell anybody about what happened today, understand?" Scott said barking orders to Tristan.

Tristan shrugged and replied "Whatever you say chief."

They both heard some kind of ringing over by the trees, not knowing what it was.

"What's that ringing?" Scott asked.

"It sounds like a bell, here's let's go check." Tristan replied.

They both rushed towards the sound of the bell to investigate. Tristan was thinking it's probably nothing, however Scott was a little worried, and he had every right to be. They entered the forest, seeing the source of the ringing. It was a bell rapped around some string. They both looked at each other with confusion.

Not too far away, they heard someone scream "Help!" They ran towards that direction, only to find Wesley fighting off three walkers. Scott also noticed something else. He saw two walkers eating something. It was a body, and it wasn't an ordinary body, it was Sean's.

Nicole arrived back at camp, waving to the crowd saying "Hey!" Everyone waved back and smiled, besides Molly that is. Nicole lost her smile, all she wanted was a positive response from Molly, and she didn't get that though. That thought quickly changed when she heard something breathe down her neck.

She turned around, seeing walkers behind her. One bit her neck, and she started screaming. From the distance everyone could see Nicole being attacked by walkers, and that's when Clint stood up screaming "Everybody get back!"

Scott ran towards Sean's body, while Tristan ran towards Wesley. Scott took out his bowie knife, striking one of the walkers in the head. He tried to pull it out to deal with the other walker, however it was stuck. The walker noticed Scott, and began walking towards him.

Tristan took out his revolver and shot one of the walkers in the head to protect Wesley. The two remaining walkers started walking towards Tristan. He fired again, only to notice his revolver was empty. Tristan panicky said "Shit!"

Scott pushed the walker against the tree, beginning to punch him repetitively. Once the walker was silenced, the noticed Tristan and the two other walkers. He ran towards Scott to give him a hand, but two more walkers immerged from the forest in front of Scott. He was thinking they must've heard Tristan's gunshot and came this way. Regardless, Scott knew he was in big trouble.

Tristan used the end of his revolver, smacking one of the walkers in the face, causing him and it to fall down. The walker was dead, but there was still one more left. Before Tristan could stand up, the walker collapsed on him. Having the walker completely over his body, Tristan was beginning to panic. He was struggling to get the walker off him while at the same time trying not to get bit.

He could hear Scott from the distance screaming "Hang on Tristan!" Tristan was still fighting for his life, but he was starting to think that this was the end for him, right before he heard something pierce the walker's head, and it stopped moving.

He pushed off the dead walker from his body to inspect what happened. He looked and saw some kind of blade pierce the back of its head. It looked like a boomerang to Tristan, but the question to him was where it came from.

He looked in front of him, and he saw a man standing before him. He was a muscular Chinese man holding a machete, wearing a wife beater and dark blue jeans. This was someone Tristan had never seen in camp before and was wondering if this was a new enemy. The man had asked Tristan if he was okay, but Tristan would not respond.

Scott ran up, saying "Andy, you're back."

Tristan remembered Scott mention someone named Andy. Something about the topic of him coming back from Chicago brought back memories in Tristan's eye, but regardless, Tristan new this was a comrade.

Andy walked over to Wesley, seeing him paralyzed from what happened. He slapped him, telling Wesley to snap out of it. Wesley woke up, checking back into reality.

"I'm okay." Wesley said.

"Good." Andy replied. Andy turned around and saw the chewed up body not too far away, and he asked who it was.

"It's…its Sean." Scott stuttered.

Andy did not bother to engage in that topic, and only replied "Let's get back to camp, see if the others are okay."

Clint fired his shotgun, putting down the third walker in camp. The group had taken down well over a dozen walkers, but hey were running low on ammunition, and also, running low on will.

"Hold them off, just hold them off!" Clint screamed. From the distance everyone could see Tristan, Scott, Andy, and Wesley running down the hill. They came in guns blazing, taking down the remaining walkers in camp.

Mary ran and hugged Tristan, saying "Thank god you guys are back."

Amanda also ran, towards Scott. "Are you guys okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, were fine…well not all of us," said Scott, referring to Sean.

Hannah finally asked, "Where's Sean?"

They were all silent. They didn't know how to tell Hannah what happened. Tristan uttered the words "He didn't make it," to Hannah.

"What about Nicole?" asked Molly. Nobody knew where Nicole was. Molly ran towards where she saw her sister before the attack.

"Molly wait!" Phillip yelled as he ran after Molly.

Molly kept running and running, until she saw another walker. She was about to take it down, until she noticed it was chewing on something. She looked closely to the walker's meal, only to figure out that the meal was Nicole.

Phillip showed up behind Molly, noticing what the walker was eating. Molly began crying, and she fell to her knees, constantly screaming "Nicole!" Phillip stabbed the walker in the heard, stopping him from chewing up what remains of Molly's sister.

Everybody else showed up behind Molly. Molly faced her sister's remains, constantly crying over the loss of her sister. Amanda also started to tear up, knowing that two people from the group are dead made her miserable.

As everybody watched Molly cry over her sister, Tristan started to notice Hannah cry as well, probably over the loss of Sean. Tristan kept wondering how many more people he's going to see die before his life will eventually be taken from him, and he prays one of them won't be Mary.

Scott turned and looked at Tristan. Everything that Tristan told him today had suddenly started flashing in his head. He walked up to Tristan, and whispered "I understand."


	4. 1 Step Forward, 6 Feet Back

The Walking Dead Apocalypse

The two Chinese younglings did their afternoon spar with each other. They had been in training under the Chinese art of sword mastery for well over five years. They were brothers, one twelve years old the other ten years old. Their relationship didn't consist of average bonding time like sports or games. They were both strictly under the influence of their father, and he prohibited any mind numbing activities that distracted the boys from their studies.

The older brother won the spar, as he usually did. The younger brother rarely won, and always felt a sense of jealously toward his brother, although he used that jealousy to harness his abilities as a swordsman, making him envy his brother. The brother would always reply, "Better luck next time."

Their father walked up to them from the distance. He would usually not speak to them during their spar, however today was a special day. It was the fifth anniversary of when both boys first started studying the art of sword.

"Do you know what today boys is?" Their father asked. Both boys just looked at him, shaking their heads from confusion. "Today is your fifth anniversary for when you started locking your minds with a sword, and for that you both have earned something passed on from generation to generation, follow me."

The boys followed their father into the shrine. There they saw two flat boxes before them. The younger brother was curious as to what's behind those boxes. The older brother was curious as well, however he did not feel like any gift would change his perspective much.

"Within these two boxes like the two swords of the Ta family, passed on timelessly," said their father. Both brothers were now intrigued that they each would own their own sword.

Their father took out the first sword saying, "The black blade, entrusted to the older brother, Alphonso Ta." The older brother, Alphonso, swung his sword fast to test its lightness. He could tell it was very sharp, he knew he would become attached to the blade.

The father took out the second sword, saying, "The white blade, entrusted to the younger brother, Andy Ta." Andy observed his blade. He could see his reflection of himself within the blade; however it wasn't a clear image. Like his brother he noticed its sharpness. It felt light within his hands.

"One day, when you two truly serve this family title, you shall realize that those swords aren't just blades, but are an extension of yourself. May you wield them with pride," their father said, as he watched Andy smile, and Alphonso just stand there expressionless.

Andy had not slept the night. After returning to camp finding out two of his fellow survivors died didn't sit well with him. Instead he stared out at the lake all night, or rather the forest across from it. He deeply looked at the trees, wondering what's behind there. Plenty of thoughts crossed his mind about the sudden walker attack, but the most recurring thought was when the group will finally decide to leave, and he hoped it be today.

It took nearly an hour for Tristan and Scott to drag up the walkers put down from last night. By count, there were about seventeen walker bodies taken down from last night, not counting Nicole or Sean. Tristan and Scott could not leave the walkers lying around camp, would cause a sense of stress to the others. Not to mention the smell of a walker alone is dreadful, and a dead one is abominable.

A week ago on a run, the group managed to find enough gasoline to travel across the state. Tristan and Scott piled up the bodies, thinking burning them is the fastest way, like one big walker camp fire. They ended up pouring an entire casing of gasoline on the pill up.

Scott took out his lighter, previously flicking it all night long. He lit the bunch on fire for everybody to see. It lit up fast, creating one of the biggest campfires the group has ever seen, even though it's not something one would like to see. Tristan and Scott stood beside each other, like the leaders this camp needs, watching the bodies burn down to a crisp

1 Step Forward 6 Feet Back

Molly had not spoken to anybody all morning. The death of her sister caused her to be utterly mute. Nobody tried to talk to her all night. Everybody knew that in this world, when you lose someone special to you, you just need time for yourself to think. In this case it was the death of Nicole, being torn apart by walkers, causing Molly to simply not be there anymore for anyone else

Phillip had dug two holes, one for each of the people lost last night. Phillip enjoyed Nicole's company on average. They got along with each other very well and were close friends. As for Sean, Phillip found him hilarious. If Phillip ever needed a good laugh, he would always go to Sean. Having both of these two deceased gave Phillip a sense of despair, and he didn't know how to comeback from it. He counted every hole he dug for Nicole and Sean. He approximately dug 48 times before each was filled.

Savian came by Phillip, asking him how he was, and Phillip replied, "I didn't even get to say goodbye."

"Well, let's this be a lesson to be prepared for next time," Savian replied.

"When I was in high school they didn't shoot a Jewish kid to prove a point about World War Two."

"Well things weren't the way they were back then Phillip, things have changed," Savian replied while grabbing Phillips shoulder, trying to comfort him regarding Nicole's and Sean's death.

Amanda came by to talk to Scott regarding last night's incident. He was working on his bike. Amanda was curious as to what Scott's plan for the group will be, and she wanted to know as soon as possible. Amanda wasn't too close to either Nicole or Sean; however their deaths didn't scare her. She began to feel like something like last night might possibly happen to people she cares about, and she didn't know how to protect them.

"Hey," said Amanda greeting Scott in a very subtle way. Scott would reply the same way. It was hard for Amanda to ask what she was about to ask, she didn't want to make it sound like she was questioning Scott's leadership. However, Amanda needed to know where the protection of her friends was going.

"So what's the plan?" asked Amanda

"What do you mean?" asked Scott. Scott was a little confused with what Amanda was asking him. He didn't know about her concern for the group, and even if he did, he didn't have a proper answer at the moment.

"Well, we lost two good people yesterday, we can't stay here anymore. It's only a matter of time before were next." Amanda replied.

"I'm working on it I swear. Me and Tristan did get the guns after all."

"Yeah well, I'm not sure Tristan was the best person to bring to a gun shop if you ask me." Amanda was referring to Tristan's acts of aggression during the day they met, but the funny part was she hadn't told Scott exactly what happened yet.

"What do you mean?" Scott asked. Scott was wondering why Amanda was questioning Tristan's loyalty towards him, especially since Tristan, along with Andy, helped save everybody's lives last night.

"Well, ever since he pointed a gun at my face I just have a bad feeling about how vengeful he could be," Replied Amanda.

"I'm sorry, when he what?" Scott said as he dropped his tools. Scott knew that during that day, Tristan did see the group as a potential danger, that's why he fired back. However nobody told him that Tristan directly tried to kill Amanda.

"Well that day we found him he tried to kill me right when he saw me, you didn't know that?" Amanda replied. Amanda assumed Scott knew about what happened, but considering the expression Scott had, she knew he didn't. There she felt like she opened a door that would become very hard to close later.

Scott walked passed Amanda heading straight for Tristan down by the lake. He was furious, he knew that Tristan could be considered a danger, but he didn't know it could end up being to this hazard. He didn't think about what he was planning to say to Tristan, but he knew it would lead him to being assertive.

Tristan was pondering his survive for himself and the group. He didn't know the full details, but he remembered Scott talking about Chicago. Maybe it is a better bet to try their luck there instead of wasting their time in such a hazardous environment. He kept thinking to himself about how he would protect Mary, and if he would even be able to do such a task anymore.

Tristan turned to the side, seeing Scott walk towards him. He thought it was good, he could discuss this Chicago plan with him thoroughly this time. However, Tristan looked as Scott's expression, and his thoughts took a turn for the worse. Whatever Scott was coming to tell Tristan about, he knew it wasn't going to go well.

"We need to talk," said Scott.

"About what?" Tristan asked. Tristan began to worry, he didn't like the way Scott was talking, and was wondering if he did something to piss him off.

"When Amanda and the group found you in town, is it true that you tried to kill her the moment you saw her?" Scott said.

Tristan didn't reply for a second. He assumed Scott already knew the details about what happened that day, but he guessed he was wrong. "Remember what I told you yesterday, about what must be done?" Tristan asked.

"Well, because of what must be done, Amanda could've ended up dead by your hand," Scott replied. Scott walked closer to Tristan, whispering in his ear, "you better stay away from Amanda, or I will kill you."

"You need to calm down," said Tristan as he grabbed Scott's shoulder.

Scott quickly shoved Tristan away replying "Don't touch me!" Tristan lost his temper, immediately pushing Scott back. They were both at each other's necks before they heard a voice say "Hey."

They both turned, seeing it was Andy. He had started watching them right around the point where Scott told Tristan to stay away from Amanda. He observed them both to the point of violence and questioned what the problem was. Andy said "What's going on over here?"

Scott walked away from Tristan towards Andy, replying "Nothing, absolutely nothing." Scott walked back to camp, having unsettled issues with Tristan, Andy could see it. Andy turned back to Tristan thinking to him what the possible problem was. He decided he would confront Tristan himself, however they really have never spoken to each other before, he thought it could be a little awkward.

"Is there a problem?" Andy asked Tristan. Tristan was hesitant to answer; Andy could figure it out too.

"No, there's no problem," Tristan replied. Andy nodded his head, and began walking away from Tristan. Tristan remembered last night, how Andy saved his life. Tristan didn't know anything about this man; however he knew that regardless of whom he is or might be, he deserved some gratitude. Tristan turned around, looking at Andy's back saying "Hey wait."

Andy turned around, looking Tristan in the eye. "I never thanked you for last night," Tristan said. Andy didn't care whether or not Tristan thanked him. What Andy did was based on his instinct, not on saving people's lives. Ever since the apocalypse began, Andy knew that any walker he comes across needed to be killed, regardless of the threat they bring to others.

"And you'll never have to," Andy replied as he walked away.

Several years have passed since the boys were handed their blades. Alphonso was now age 25, while Andy was 23. They had stuck together for over thirteen years, eventually moving to America. Instead of most immigrated jobs Chinamen would get, they were enrolled into a dangerous mafia, leaded by a man named Mr. Pasoli, and Italian gangster. They had served this man for almost three years, becoming his top assassins. They were given specific assignments as hit men to take out Mr. Pasoli's greatest threats, and today another assignment was given to the both of them.

They walked into Mr. Pasoli's office, not sitting like usual. They both would often stand, usually because the meetings were short. Mr. Pasoli would always offer them a drink, they would both always decline. They took their work very professionally, even though Mr. Pasoli didn't.

"Hello gentlemen, why don't we just get down to business huh?" Mr. Pasoli said. They both stood still, expressionless. "Splendid!" Mr. Pasoli said.

"Now, there's a man I use to do business with, his name is Ralph Dodony. I thought he would be a good alley, however I was wrong. He was secretly working with the cops undercover. Now he has a meeting with me tomorrow night at a warehouse, and my guess is he's going to have his police buddies hiding somewhere to take me into custody. That's where you boys come in. They'll be in the warehouse, and I'll have my guys come back you up. Your task is to kill Mr. Dodony for me, end of story."

"Who gets to kill him?" Andy asked. Usually it was Alphonso who did the assassinations, and Andy would always get to watch. He for once wanted to be the one who gets the job done instead of being his brother's wingman.

"I'll leave that to Alphonso," said Mr. Pasoli. "Anyways, you two have a splendid night! My guys will give you the directions to the warehouse tomorrow morning. Have fun."

Andy was upset. He was sick of his brother always doing the dirty work instead of him. He turned to his brother, looking him down with envy. Alphonso also turned his head, saying "Better luck next time."

Hannah had spent the last hour staring at Sean's grave. She just sat there, not looking anywhere else. She knew all Sean wanted to do was help the camp, and it cost his life. They were together for three years. The death of Sean came so fast that she didn't know how to feel about it.

Wesley came by to see Hannah. He was there when Sean passed away, and it put him in shock. If Andy hadn't come by when he did, Wesley would be dead as well. All Sean wanted to do was help Wesley with the wired bells; he knew he needed to pay his respects to him.

"I came to pay my respects," said Wesley as he sat down beside Hannah. Hannah didn't speak again, and all Wesley wanted at this point was to hear her voice. "You know, it was terrible the way Sean died, but it wasn't without meaning, you do know that right?" Wesley asked.

Hannah finally spoke replying, "I know, but he's still dead." She turned to Wesley and had a faint smile. "Sean didn't deserve to die," said Hannah as she began to cry.

Wesley replied "No one deserves to die the way he did in this world. It's tragic, and we're never going to know who'll be next."

"Why are you telling me this Wesley?" Hannah asked. "You didn't lose the person you loved."

"No, I didn't, but I'm afraid one day I might. That's why we both need to learn from this… to survive, and to protect everyone we care about." Hannah had a cracked smile. She turned back; staring down at Sean's graving thinking about Wesley's words.

Molly spent the afternoon in the forest by herself. Whenever she was upset about something she would spend her time throwing her three knives she acquired from her father. Her aim was considered…descent. She would sometimes nail her target, other times she would miss completely. However on this day, the first day without her sister near her, she never missed her target.

Amanda followed Molly to the forest. Amanda understood that Molly was the one who was damaged the most after last night's attack. Amanda watched Molly throw her knives for a while, and she was impressed by her accuracy. Amanda and Molly to a sense were good friends. Amanda it knew that it was now the time to talk to her, and it would be right after Molly hit the tree bark perfectly.

"You're a good shot you know," Amanda yelled to Molly getting her attention.

Molly turned back to the tree replying, "What do you want Amanda?"

Amanda walked closer to Molly to the point where she was directly behind her. She said "Nobody blames you Molly," and Molly turned around, "for what happened."

Molly faced Amanda to the eye replying "What makes you think it was my fault?" Molly was furious. She was thinking who the hell was Amanda to tell her that the death of her sister was her fault.

"I didn't say I thought that, but I'm not necessarily sure you think that," Amanda replied.

Molly's expression of anger instantly vanished into a face of guilt. She understood what Amanda was speaking about. To Molly, she was responsible for Nicole, but ever since Everett returned before the apocalypse, she just had nothing but shame towards her. Instead of checking up on her when she was alone, she decided to stay in camp letting her to whatever she wanted, and it led to her death.

Molly began tearing up, replying "I couldn't save her." Amanda walked towards Molly further. Molly put her knife down, and began to hug Amanda. Molly thought at that point that no matter what she does, Nicole wasn't going to come back, so she shouldn't take it out on the people who care about her. Amanda kept caring for her, telling her it'll all be all right.

"What's left Amanda? What else is there to live for in this world?" said Molly as she started crying. "Everything we love, it'll all just eventually die ugly, just like my sister. You, me… and Scott."

Amanda back away from Molly at that point. After what she just said, a sudden realization popped up in her head. She kept asking herself what would happen if Scott died like Nicole, how would Amanda handle it? Or if Amanda died and how could Scott handle it? Regardless of the negativity Molly's words represent, she knew it was right. She knew eventually that one day everything will turn on us, like a knife stabbing her in the chest.

Tristan had spent some part of his afternoon organizing the guns him and Scott grabbed from the shop. He felt convicted about Scott's reaction today. He was questioning if Scott trusted him anymore, or if he even trusted himself. He would invariably keep staring at Murray's revolver. He kept wondering what might have happened if he did kill Amanda. Would Scott have killed him? All Tristan knows now at this point is he stopped himself from making an extremely dangerous decision. He just didn't know how to gain Scott's trust again.

Mary came to Tristan at that point, asking him how he's been doing. Tristan didn't have much of a response for a moment. He just shrugged saying he was alright, nothing that seemed to serious however to Mary. He was uncommunicative for a moment, and Mary saw right through it, so she asked him was his real dilemma is.

"Scott knows I tried to kill Amanda, he didn't take it well," said Scott.

Mary looked at Tristan with slight sympathy before she replied. "How are you going to fix it?" she asked.

"I'm not sure. I mean after what happened yesterday, it'll be hard for him to remain loyal to me," replied Tristan. Tristan was referring to when he killed the two men in town yesterday in cold blood, and how Scott at first was against it. Tristan assumed Scott was over what happened when yesterday he told him he understood what he meant, after Sean and Nicole's death. However, the story with Murray, the death of the two men, and trying to murder Amanda, Tristan had no conception as to how Scott would ever trust him again.

"What do you mean after what happened yesterday?" Mary asked. Tristan just remembered that he never told Mary about what happened in town after they got the guns. He wasn't sure if telling Mary about the situation they had was really the best idea, so he would keep it away from her.

"Oh nothing, just a problem with the guns," Tristan said. Mary didn't suspect anything of what Tristan spoke there. Instead, she was concerned with something else.

"So, where are we headed?" she asked.

Tristan didn't fully understand what Mary meant, so he asked "What do you mean?"

"There were dozens of walkers in camp last night…and we lost two people. We can't stay here," she replied.

"Well, Scott spoke something about Chicago. I'm not sure what he means by it, but it has something to do with Andy," Tristan replied.

"Then let's go talk to Andy, see what he thinks."

"Sound like a plan, let's go," said Tristan.

Clint walked out of his tent towards Karin. Clint was shaken up about the lack of safety the camp had, and he wanted to make sure he could find a way to protect Karin. He knew that staying at this camp would mean the death of everybody.

"Hey," said Clint greeting Karin. "I think we should leave."

"Are you sure?" Karin asked. Karin wasn't too preferred to the camp's immunity to walkers either, but she wasn't sure if leaving was a good idea either.

"Yes absolutely, this place isn't safe," Clint replied.

"Alright, but where are we supposed to go? And what do Scott and Tristan thinks?" Karin asked. Karin saw both Scott and Tristan as the leaders of this camp. She insisted on asking Clint what their thoughts on his idea were; however, Clint did not really care what their opinion is.

"It doesn't matter what they think. You and me, we can leave today. Just the two of us, together," Clint replied. Clint thought to himself that he didn't need either of the two's leadership. Clint always wanted to be his own leader, and he hates putting Karin's life in Scott's hands all the time.

"But…what about the others?" Karin asked.

"We don't need them, they're just holding us back Karin. You and I can survive on our own."

"Clint no, we can't just leave them," Karin replied. Unlike Clint, Karin has learned to care about the group, she depends on them.

Clint was a little frustrated with Karin's words. He didn't understand why she was so attached to the group. Aggressively, Clint asked, "Alright, what do you say we do then?"

"Let's talk to Scott, see what he thinks," Karin suggested. Karin always saw Scott as a dependable leader; she just wished Clint could as well.

"Alright fine," Clint said annoyingly. "Where is he?"

Scott was lying down, flicking his lighter on and off. He kept imagining the fire he lit today, with the dozens of walkers piled up. He was also utterly heated towards Tristan's recent actions. With everything that happened yesterday, Scott had a lot of his hands. He was upset about the death of Nicole and Sean. He was angry about Tristan's bloodlust that he didn't know how to solve. And the most concerning to him is how he plans on getting the group out of this camp, and to a safer place… if even possible.

Clint and Karin showed up in front of Scott, and Clint immediately asked, "So Scott, where we headed?"

Scott stood up, closing his lighter and putting it away. He didn't know exactly what to tell Clint. Scott wasn't sure about the Chicago safe zone that the bartender told him about. He had sent Andy there about a week ago alone to scout it out. However, with everything that happened yesterday night, Scott never got a chance to talk to Andy about it.

"Before the apocalypse began, I was in a bar talking to this man about this lab in Chicago. He said that it would be the only safe haven left on the planet when the world went to shit. I had Andy go there to scout out if it was safe," Scott replied.

"Alright, and?" Clint asked.

"Well, I don't know. I haven't talked to Andy about it yet."

"Well then let's go talk to him."

Andy was sharpening his boomerang. Every time he kills something, regardless if it's a walker or person, he would soon sharpen his blade. He sharpened it for ten minutes straight before he thought it was gleaming. Once he was finished, he looked into the reflection of the blade, seeing a faded image of himself.

It was around 11:00PM when the operation would take place. Pasoli's men had already taken care of the cops that Ralph Dodony had brought with him. The only ones left were Ralph himself, and the two shadows that lurked within the warehouse. Ralph was in the center of the building, not suspecting anything. He had no idea he was going to be murdered that night, so he naturally just waited for Mr. Pasoli to arrive and be taken into custody. After about waiting for twenty minutes, he looked out the window, wondering where he Pasoli was.

He looked out the window, not seeing anything, not even his cops he brought along. He was questioning what the situation where. He didn't know where Pasoli was or where his cops had gone. He had backed away from the window, and turned around, seeing the first shadow creep from behind.

Ralph backed away at first, taking out his gun to shoot the masked man. Once he took out his gun, he loaded it immediately; however it was shortly kicked away by the second shadow he saw to his left. Ralph fell to the ground, constantly saying the words "No!" as he slid away from the shadows. Both took off their masks, revealing themselves to be Andy and Alphonso. Ralph kept screaming "Who are you people!"

The next few minutes were some of Ralph's worst. Andy and Alphonso had beaten him to a pulp, excreting any information he leaked to the fuzz previously before he came here. Several of Pasoli's men had entered the warehouse, dropping off the cops that had come to take Pasoli into custody. There were more than a dozen cops, sixteen to be precise. Pasoli's men left Ralph for the assassins, giving them nothing but rope, a bag, and a chair.

He was tied to the chair, having his face covered by the bag. Alphonso kept hearing Ralph whisper "Please, please don't kill me," but he wouldn't bother to listen. Alphonso had taken out his black blade, preparing to complete his objective. He had it pointed behind Ralph, going to having it pierce right through his heart. Right before Alphonso had done it, Andy had stopped.

"Alphonso wait," Andy said. Alphonso looked up to Andy from his curiosity. "Let me kill him, please." Andy was absolutely done with Alphonso always being the one to complete his task. He just wanted to prove himself for once, so he assumed if he asked his brother, he would let him do it.

Alphonso smiled at Andy, looking back down to his blade. He pierced through Ralph's heart, immediately killing him, laughing while he does it. He looked back up at Andy, seeing him very frustrated with him. The only words that Alphonso could speak to Andy were, "Better luck next time."

Scott, Clint and Karin came by Andy. Andy generally likes to be alone while he sharpens his weapons and was wondering why he had so many people bother him at once. He was never really a people person, in fact the main reason he left to go to Chicago was to get away from everybody. Andy, as well as everybody else knew that he was the outsider of the group.

"You guys need something?" Andy asked.

At this point, Scott needed to learn what Andy found it Chicago, so he asked "How was your trip?"

Andy began to chuckle, replying "You want to know if it's safe, am I right?"

"What did you find there?" Clint asked.

"Well, I didn't investigate the entire city, and I found no lab of yours Scott," Andy replied. Scott looked to the ground with disappointment. Andy would then say "However, from the week I was there, I didn't run into a single walker."

"No walkers? In such a big city like that?" Karin said baffled.

"Well like I said, I didn't investigate the entire building. It seems secure though. More secure than this place at least," Andy replied. He went back to sharpening his boomerang.

Clint turned to face Scott, asking him "So what do we do?"

From behind them, they heard a voice say "We leave by the end of the day." The looked, seeing it was Tristan, standing beside Mary. "We should head for Chicago."

Scott said to Clint and Karin, "Would you excuse me for a moment," as he walked towards Tristan.

Tristan was a little concerned with what Scott was about to say to him, considering their previous argument was not resolved. Scott walked up to him, saying "I could be too risky."

"More risky than staying here?" Mary said.

"We don't know what's out there in the city," said Scott.

"But we do know what's out there," Tristan replied. "Chicago could be the place we've been dreaming of Scott. It just takes one step forward."

"Yeah exactly it could be, we don't know if it will be. Sure what Andy found might be some place safe, but with everything that happened yesterday, we can't leave everything or anything to chance. It might be one step forward, but we're another six feet back," Scott replied.

Tristan was looking into Scott's eyes, seeing that he's lost hope. "Look we can't stay here anymore Scott. I'll let everyone know that by the end of the day we'll be leaving," Tristan replied as he began to walker away.

Scott quickly and aggressively grabbed Tristan's shirt pulling him towards him, saying "You don't get to make the decision here!" They both stared each other down. From Tristan's perspective, it looked like Scott wanted to kill him.

"Scott, let him go. Calm down," Mary said. Scott let go of Tristan, and began walking in the other direction. "Why is he so angry today?" Mary asked Tristan.

"He has a temper," said Tristan.

Phillip and Savian were both inspecting the guns brought back from the shop yesterday. Neither of them have a good knowledge basis with guns; in fact Savian has never used one before. The only time Phillip ever had a gun was when he went on runs. They both wanted to know what kind of fire power they would have in case another herd came by.

"Is this all the guns that Scott brought back?" asked Phillip.

"Yeah, him and Tristan," Savian replied. "You know, if you really look at it, it was their fault for what happened to Nicole and Sean."

"What are you talking about?" Phillip asked.

"Well, if they hadn't gone out on a run yesterday for so long, then maybe we could've saved them. Their logic is both military trained men go out on a run leaving the inexperienced ones alone at camp. You get what I mean?"

"Well, I guess I understand a little bit."

Amanda had been behind them for a while. She heard their entire conversation. She didn't believe that anything Savian said was true, especially when it came to Nicole and Sean's death. She had walked up close, replying "You shouldn't be saying that Savian."

Savian was a little annoyed that Amanda was eavesdropping on their conversation. "And why the hell not?" Savian sarcastically asked.

Amanda turned to Phillip and said, "Phillip, do you remember why Scott and Tristan left yesterday?"

"They needed the guns… for some reason," Phillip replied.

"Yeah, and they did that yesterday because we didn't get them from town the day before," Amanda replied. "Not to mention, Sean died because he went off in the forest helping Wesley, and if they hadn't returned when they did, Wesley might be dead too. And when they came back with Andy, they saved us all."

Savian was hesitant to talk a first, but he replied "You may have a point."

"Look, I know you guys question both of their leadership abilities, but you have to remember that Scott's gotten us a lot further than we ever thought we could, and Tristan…I wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for him," Amanda replied.

"Alright, I'll start to give them both a chance," Savian replied.

"How's Molly doing?" Phillip asked.

Molly, like Hannah previously did, spent an exceptional amount of time looking at Nicole's grave. She was sick of blaming herself for what happened, so instead she just started wishing her sister was still alive.

Tristan came by the graves, seeing Molly sitting there alone. She hadn't really talked to Molly yet. The only thing she really knows about her is that she's willing to go on runs with people, and that he fired at her that one day. He could also tell that she loved her sister very much, and that she must be taking her loss very hard. He didn't know Molly as a person, but now might be a good time to start.

"I'm sorry for your loss," said Tristan.

"That makes two of us," Molly replied.

Tristan sat down beside Molly, looking into Nicole's grave. "You know I had a brother. He died when I was only sixteen," he said.

"What happened to him?" Molly asked.

"Car crash," Tristan replied.

"How'd you handle that?"

"I was upset about it for a while. My family was a little different. I lived with my dad while he lived with my mom. I never really learned what kind of person he was, and that's what I regret the most."

Molly began to start seeing Tristan as something more than a threat now. She had something in common with him now, and she thought that maybe one day she could fully learn to trust him for who he is.

Tristan said, "I don't want that to ever happen again. When I have the chance to learn who someone is, I take the chance. No regrets."

Wesley walked into the forest going to collect all the wire lost from last night. This time he was armed, with a five seven, just in case. He went to the spot where Sean died. The images of Sean's death kept flashing inside his head. He couldn't stand to look at that spot anymore. He turned away, feeling nauseous. He kept hearing some kind of blade piercing something, so he ran in that direction.

He walked through the bushes, seeing someone throwing something at a tree over and over again. It was Andy, throwing his boomerang at a tree. He was spending time making sure his aim was still good.

Wesley revealed himself from the bushes saying "You have pretty good aim." Andy looked at him briefly, but he didn't bother to engage in discussion. He just went back throwing his boomerang at the tree. "What did you do before the apocalypse?" Wesley asked.

"I was a body guard," Andy replied.

Wesley was nodding his head replying "That's pretty cool." They stopped talking for a moment. The real reason why Wesley wanted to talk to Andy was to thank him for what happened last night. "Andy I never thanked you for last night."

Andy turned around with frustration, saying "I don't know what it is with you people. You don't have to thank me. If you want to show your appreciation… then just leave me alone." He turned around again.

Wesley dropped his smile. He didn't understand why Andy was suddenly snapping at him. He felt a sense of despair for him. Wesley walked closer, replying "I don't know why you distance yourself from everybody Andy, why can't you learn to trust anybody?"

"It's not a matter of trust Wesley; it's a matter of compassion. When you grow to care for someone, it slows you down. I can't afford to care about people anymore," Andy replied.

"Then why do you even bother staying with a group this size?" Wesley asked.

"Because, I can't afford to care about people anymore, but I also can't afford to let any more people die," he replied.

One hour passed after Ralph Dodony was murdered. Andy had made the call to Mr. Pasoli. He told them to burn the warehouse down. They poured gasoline all over the warehouse. They spread the cop's bodies all over the warehouse thinking it would be easier that burning down a whole pile of people. Right before they would light it, Andy would stare at Ralph's body. He looked at Alphonso saying "I could've done it Alphonso; it doesn't always has to be you."

"Andy, do you know why I have the black blade and you have the white?" Alphonso asked. Andy did not reply. "It's because between the two of us you're the righteous one, I'm immoral, and I like it like that," Alphonso replied. Andy didn't understand Alphonso's words.

They noticed Ralph's body had kept moving. They both looked, thinking they were certain he's dead. "Well, I guess he wasn't ready to die yet," Alphonso said. He was irritated, and took out his blade one time. "Maybe if I chop his head off it'll suffice," he said before taking off the bag, seeing Ralph was no longer what he seemed.

He had turned, and both Andy and Alphonso backed away. They didn't know what he just became, but they both knew he was no longer human. Andy took out his blade, decapitating the walker. "What the hell happened to him?" Andy asked.

They both heard more whispers within the warehouse. They turned around, seeing another walker appear, this one dressed as a cop. They readied their blades, preparing to slay the creature as it approaches them.

More of them appeared from the shadows. All of the cops that were killed that night had turned, and neither of the brothers knew what was really happening. They both split off, beheading anything that came close to them. Alphonso was up against one of the demons. He had cut the walkers head off, accidentally cutting a lamp in half. When the lamp had hit the ground, it was relatively close to the gasoline, lighting the warehouse on fire.

The brothers were back to back against each other with walkers surrounding them as the warehouse burned. Andy kept screaming to Alphonso "What the hell do we do!"

Alphonso had noticed a window on the second floor of the warehouse. He replied "There, we can escape there!"

Andy was down by the lake, looking across the water at the forest. He noticed the trees were moving different than any other day. He liked looking at the lake. His problem was the people around him always keep coming to talk to him.

Tristan had found a map of the state. He was trying to figure out how far Chicago was from here. He didn't care at this point what Scott thought, he knew he needed to get the group away from here as soon as possible. Tristan is confused as to why Scott doesn't agree with him. Yesterday before the run, Scott said himself that the camp would be the death of everyone.

Amanda saw Tristan looking at the map. She walked up from behind him saying "What you got there Tristan?"

Tristan quickly hid the map behind him as he greeted Amanda with "Uh nothing."

"Tristan, c'mon you can trust me," Amanda replied.

"But can you trust me?" Tristan asked.

"I can start trying," Amanda politely said. Tristan from this day wanted to avoid Amanda as much as possible ever since Scott found out about what happened two days ago. He wasn't sure if Scott would learn to trust him again, but he thought maybe if Amanda did, it would be a good opening.

"Alright, it's a map. I'm trying to figure out where Chicago is," Tristan replied. He revealed the map to Amanda. Right when he gave it to her, Scott appeared from behind.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Scott said.

"Scott, I was just…" Tristan stuttered.

"Stay away from her!" Scott said as he interrupted Tristan. He looked at the map and replied "What the hell is that?"

"It's a map leading us to Chicago," Amanda replied.

Scott looked Tristan with frustration, aggressively saying "I told you, you don't make the decision here!"

Amanda stepped forward, pushing Scott away from Tristan saying "Scott, we have to try." She looked into Scott's eyes, trying to calm him down. "Please, for me?" Amanda said.

Scott was irritated with Tristan. He made it clear that he needed to stay away from Amanda, and also that the Chicago decision hadn't been made yet. He was looking into Amanda's blue eyes, remembering the first day they met. At that moment, Scott didn't care about the rest of the camp. The only thing he cared about at that moment was Amanda's protection.

"Alright, we'll leave first thing tomorrow morning," Scott said. Tristan smiled and nodded.

Everything seemed peaceful for a moment, like all the troubles they had were slipped away beneath their fingers. That was before they heard Andy from the lake scream "Somebody come down here now!"

Both Tristan and Scott came down running to Andy. They didn't see anything, so why was he calling them? Tristan looked at Andy asking "What is it, I don't see anything?"

"Look across the lake," Andy replied. Both Tristan and Scott looked across, but they saw nothing, just water and trees.

"Andy I don't see anything," Scott said.

"Just keep looking," Andy replied. They all kept looking. They still didn't see anything. Tristan rubbed his eyes. He noticed that the bushes were moving, and it wasn't from the wind. He closely looked into the forest, and he could finally see the walkers emerge.

"Oh god," Tristan whispered.

Scott began running back to camp, saying "C'mon, we're leaving right now."

Tristan ran to Mary. Right when he got to her, she asked what was wrong. Tristan said he had no time to explain and they just needed to hurry. Tristan screamed in the camp, telling everybody to pack up quickly and leave.

Almost everybody was ready to go. Savian and Phillip quickly packed all the guns in Tristan's truck. Scott went on his chopper, having Amanda behind him clench tightly. All supplies were packed, and mostly everybody was by the cars. All except for Hannah.

Wesley screamed down the hill "Hannah hurry up!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming," Hannah replied. Hannah was carrying two cases of clothes; one of them was Sean's. She didn't want to leave that behind for the walkers to keep. She kept running and running and she was nearly there.

Two walkers had appeared in front of her, causing her to slip and fall on her back. She was screaming, she didn't know what to do. She had no weapons on her. During that moment, she thought she was dead.

She saw one of the walkers fall to Andy's boomerang. She got up, noticing Andy was behind her. He through his machete to her, telling her to kill it. Hannah kept saying "I can't do it."

"Hannah, you can do it, I got your back," Andy replied. The walker got closer and closer to Hannah. She closed her eyes, and swung the machete. When she opened her eyes, she noticed the walkers head lying on the ground. She finally put a walker down, and she had nobody but Andy to thank.

Andy grabbed Hannah's hand saying "C'mon let's get out of her." Both of them had run to the trucks as fast as they could, and Hannah abandoned Sean's clothes. They both got into Phillips red truck. Everybody was now ready to leave. Tristan honked his horn, giving everybody initiative that it's time to leave. The three cars and bike had finally left camp, heading for Chicago.

The building was falling apart piece by piece from the fire. Andy had climbed up to the first floor while his brother was dealing with the walkers. Andy had made it to the top, telling Alphonso it was his turn. Alphonso killed one walker before he started climbing. At about the third step, the floor had collapsed, causing Alphonso to also fall.

He got up, facing the three walkers in front of him. He had his blade out, ready to kill them. He looked back at his brother. Alphonso knew there was no way of escaping the warehouse, so he just screamed "Get out of here Andy!"

Andy listened to what he said. He ran for the window ready to leave. Before he jumped out, he needed to do something. He ran back to the collapsed staircase, calling out Alphonso. Andy unsheathed his white blade. He looked into its reflection, and he could see a nice clear image of him this time. He smiled.

He threw his blade down to Alphonso. Alphonso grabbed it, pointing it at the three walkers. The last image he had of his brother was him facing the three walkers with the black and white blades given to them by their father.

Andy ran for the window and jumped. He hit the ground, causing some slight pain to him, but nothing he couldn't shake off. He stood up, looking at the warehouse as it collapsed and was engulfed in flames. He knew he brother was dead at that point. This burnt down warehouse, would be known to him as Alphonso's final grave.

The group was about a mile away from the camp now. Hannah and Andy were sitting in the car. Hannah remembered that she left Sean's clothes at camp, but she didn't care anymore. She kept thinking about the walker that she beheaded, and how it really suffocated her on the inside. The walkers killed Sean; it was about time to learn how to kill the walkers. Hannah looked at Andy and said, "Thank you."

"You don't have to thank me Hannah," Andy replied. Hannah did not bother replying to that, he always rejects gratitude anyways. She pointed the end of the machete to Andy, trying to give it back to him. Andy said "Keep it, I have a feeling you'll need it more than I will." She kept it on her lap, now knowing she has something to fight with, and it wasn't just Sean's spirit.

Tristan was driving his white truck, having Mary in shotgun. He kept looking at the road, and Scott's bike in front of him. He was thinking about what happened today. Nothing Tristan said could break through Scott's anger. However a few words that emerged from Amanda's mouth calmed him down really fast. Tristan doesn't know what the story is behind those two, but he knew one thing. Scott was in love with her.

"What do you think Chicago's going to be like?" Mary asked.

"Safe. I hope," Tristan replied. They both kept looking down to road, ready for whatever Chicago has waiting for them.


	5. Leave It All Behind

The Walking Dead Apocalypse

Six years ago, when Tristan was twenty-two years old, he was enlisted in the military. He was well respected among his fellow comrades, and was considered a high value soldier, and to the enemy a high value target at times, at least in their minds. He trained well to become a valuable private, and his captains over time earned him respect. He usually went in stealthy and clean or guns blazing on the front line during his time in Afghanistan. To him, war wasn't his way of solving nationalistic problems. However, he did not join the military for himself, but for his brother.

On a certain day, like any other average day in the military when wrested, he would wake up every morning, smelling as fresh as a soldier could. He would bathe himself shortly, and then join his friend's routine. Their routine wasn't something organized though, it was comprised of smoking cigarettes, target practice, and eating 6oz steaks for breakfast lunch and dinner every day until they were given orders. The base he was secured at wasn't much, they had cabins for the men to sleep and have their possessions held. To Tristan however, he didn't care about what the camp looked like or what his routine was. What he did care about was succeeding when orders were given to him by his superior officers.

It was about 11:00 am when a man named Sergeant Jackson would arrive on Tristan's quarters to give him his new orders. Tristan, as well as his squad, was in a game of basketball, or what they called Afghan basketball, where no rules apply. The sergeant would watch the game a little bit at first, considering the lack of entertainment the war brings to men. After about a minute of observing them he would interrupt by screaming "Private Oram!" The men dropped their game, immediately looking him down with solute.

Tristan and Sergeant Jackson walked outside along the camp. The camp was about a football field's length and width long. They would watch the men gear up as they walked; preparing themselves for any operation their superior's gave them. Sergeant Jackson at first brought up how Tristan was feeling lately, pretending like he actually cared when he didn't. Once that short pointless conversation ended, Jackson finally said, "I'm putting you back in action Oram."

Tristan laughed, replying "Haven't seen much action since what happened to Oscar Sergeant, but I'm listening." Tristan turned and faced Jackson in the eye, wondering what kind of mission he would send him on. Tristan didn't respect Jackson more than he needed to; he thought his leadership lacked something important, cooperation.

"There's a camp we spotted, it's possible their some valuable Intel there we might need," Jackson replied.

"Intel for what?" Tristan asked.

"That's none of your concern, what is your concern is helping me acquire it," Jackson replied. Tristan didn't appreciate the dishonestly coming out of Jackson's mouth. Every time Tristan went on a mission he had complete loyalty and trust in all the privates he was around. Once that thought slipped out of Tristan's mind, he recalled Jackson saying he would help him.

"Help you?" Tristan said, pretending like he didn't understand what Jackson was talking about.

"Yeah, I'm thinking about bringing a team there for the Intel extraction, and it might possibly be well guarded."

"What's in it for me?" Tristan asked.

"…Redemption," Jackson replied, now seeing that Tristan's smile had dropped.

The group had travelled all night across the state of Illinois on their destination to Chicago. The drivers were beginning to get drowsy, having driven for over five hours straight. Scott himself, driving his chopper, was beginning to feel a bit sleepy, and having Amanda hold onto him for the entire night didn't sleep. The group tried to ignore their lack of rest, considering their lives depended on getting to Chicago in one piece.

The first car, a 90's Camaro, driven by Clint holding Karin, Phillip and Savian were probably the least chatty. None of them had any idea what to expect when heading to Chicago. Clint feared for Karin's safety, he didn't like the idea of putting his and her life in the hands of Scott's hunch; also considering the idea to leave was brought on by Tristan. Clint kept rubbing his nose along the ride. Although it was not broken, it still brought Clint pain once and a while, no thanks from Tristan.

The second car, a Saturn VEU, driven by Molly holding Andy Hannah and Wesley wasn't much better. Wesley and Hannah talked for a while; however Andy and Molly were as silent as a snake. Andy like usual remains quite so he doesn't need to connect to anyone, not even after saving Hannah's life briefly before leaving the camp. Molly was the only one from the group who didn't feel a slight bit tired. Her eyes remained on the road for the entire trip. The thought of her sister did not once leave her sister's mind, however sometimes she remembered what Tristan told her yesterday.

The third car, Tristan's white truck, driven by Tristan himself and only Mary with him, was probably the most talkative. They talked the entire time during the trip. They brought up memorable events that happened at the Finis, they were discussing Chicago, and Tristan showed Mary the bottle of whiskey he brought back from the bar just for her. Regardless of the emotional status of the group, they still had each other to depend on happiness. Tristan at one point forgot that the world had gone to hell, and that life was actually something worth seeing.

The sun had finally ascended over the horizon, it was day break. The group was only seven miles away from Chicago now. Driving up the road, Scott noticed a gas station coming up. He anticipated that the vehicles will need more gas when entering the city, as well as food and water. He waved his hand up, signalling to Scott that he was going to pull over to the gas station. They parked their cars, having Scott Clint and Savian exiting their cars.

Scott walked up to the group with Amanda saying, "Alright, there's food and water inside. Amanda and Savian, fuel up the cars. Tristan and Clint come with me inside to gather the subsistence we need." The group did not hesitate to what Scott told them to do. Unlike all of the bitter decisions made by Scott lately, everyone knew that this one was rational.

Tristan Scott and Clint walked inside the gas station. They spread out looking for any kind of nutrition they could find. They packed up water, bags of chips, candy bars and any other food inside that wasn't already expired. Tristan came across a section where you could purchase band aids, or could've purchased band aids. He yelled, "Hey Clint, you might need these," as he threw the band aids to Clint. Clint gave him a dirty look.

Scott noticed over the counter there were cigarettes. He flipped over the counter, grabbing a pack. Scott hadn't smoked since the outbreak began. In the past, Scott would only smoke when he was stressed out, and he rarely was during his day at the Finis. In this world however, not all the cigarettes in the world would help with his stress at this point.

Tristan noticed what Scott was doing and walked over. Scott took out his lighter, immediately lighting a smoke. Tristan figured that after everything that has happened, he wouldn't think that Scott would still need to find time to smoke. Scott looked like he was enjoying the cigarette, and he very much was. Tristan smiled and said, "Didn't think you'd still be smoking at this point."

"Ah hell, in this world the smoke don't matter, it's the ashes that come later," Scott replied. Tristan looked at Scott nodding his head. Tristan understood what Scott was really talking about, and it's not the cigarettes. He assumed Scott was referring to the world as they now know. When the world was once a full structure complete had started crumbling away from the fire.

A noise erupted within the gas station. Scott Tristan and Clint all turned, hearing that it came from the woman's bathroom. Scott took out his bowie knife, pointing a flashlight down the hall as they walked. Tristan slowly took out his revolver as he walked behind Scott. Scott pointed his flashlight directly at the woman's bathroom, ready for anything he might find behind the door. He had his hand on the handle, slowly turning it.

The door was opened. Scott pointed the flashlight inside the bathroom, revealing the dead body. Tristan and Clint pointed their firearms at the body, fearing what it might be. Scott looked away, saying "Don't worry its dead."

The walker screamed out. Tristan immediately fired at it, turning its head to mush. "It is now," Tristan replied. The walker was a female, looking to be around the age of twenty. Tristan was thinking maybe she worked here. He lowered his firearm and put it aside.

Scott looked at Tristan saying "You see what I mean, ash," right before they left the gas station.

Leave It All Behind

They group entered the city of Chicago down town. To their eyes, it was a quiet city, not a threat worth noticing. Tristan was starting to think that Scott's theory may be right after all. Andy said he spent about a week here with no sight of a walker. Tristan was a little sceptical about the entire Chicago idea; however with everything they've been seeing all day it might be very secure. The only thing left was finding this supposed safe zone Scott was talking about. That was the last thought that came into Tristan's head before he noticed the barricade.

Scott stopped his bike, signaling to Tristan to stop his truck. In front of them were 20ft tall barricades blocking the roads from any vehicle access? Everybody exited their cars walking towards the structure. Scott looked at it in wonder for why this was here. The entire group was now faced against the structure. Phillip asked "What the hell is this."

"It's some kind of barricade," Wesley responded.

"Why would they put a barricade in the middle of Chicago?" Mary asked.

"Look at it closely," Andy replied. He pointed at the barricade having everybody staring at it. "It was probably built as a defense to keep the walkers out of the city. There's more circling around the base."

"Why didn't you mention this to us?" Tristan asked.

"Thought you should see it for yourself." Andy replied. Tristan looked at Andy with slight distain. "Anyway, vehicles can't slip through but we can."

Everybody was given out a gun from Scott. The two swat shotguns were given to Phillip and Clint. The three M27's were given out to Amanda Molly, and Scott held one for himself. The Barrett was given to Andy. The two M27's were given to Mary and Hannah was given the two Mp9's, and finally the two P99's were given to Wesley and Karin. Both Scott and Tristan also had their firearms aside for insurance.

"What about all our bags?" Karin asked.

"We'll get them later, after we find the lab." Scott replied.

"Assuming it exists," Clint replied.

The group started slipping through the barricade. Everybody was through except for Mary and Tristan. Mary was about to slip through, until she noticed Tristan was just standing there, staring at the structure. She walked back to him, grabbed his hand and said "C'mon, it'll be fine."

Tristan, Sergeant Jackson and two more members of his squad were inside the helicopter. They were about a half hour away from the Afghan base. Tristan remained quiet the entire helicopter ride. He hadn't seen action for quite a while, so he eventually asked, "Are we going to land in the base immediately?"

"No," Sergeant Jackson replied. "Were going to land a few miles from the base, give them the surprise instead."

The two helicopters landed. The team was comprised of eight men. Tristan and Sergeant Jackson of course. An Afghan translator named Peter. A sniper named Allan. An explosive expert named Richard, and three normal marines named John Roland and Nolan. This was Tristan's usual team. They had gone on several missions together, usually successive but usually away from a firefight. This was the first time Sergeant Jackson was working with the team personally, Tristan hated how he was filling in for his friend Oscar.

"Alright, we're going to sneak into the enemy lines, burn the bastards to hell, and extract the Intel, sound good?" Jackson confirmed. Everybody was silent. "Good, now follow me," Jackson enforced. He took ahead of the group signaling everybody to follow. Tristan looked at his back with discomfort.

The group walked through the city of Chicago. They walked by a few McDonalds, convenience stores, grocery stores and even a few mini malls, but no lab. The group was pretty quiet for the most part. Everybody was stressed out about the situation. None of them knew whether or not this lab actually existed, and they were starting to believe that it didn't.

Savian noticed everybody was looking a little worried, so he asked everyone "So, what's the first thing everybody's going to do when we find the lab?" Everybody was silent for a minute; they didn't want to get their hopes up to high.

"I'm going to take a shower," Karin replied. Karin didn't want to lose hope for the lab, so she thought she'd give everybody else some hope.

"If there's food there I would mind stuffing my stomach to the brim," Wesley replied.

"I'm going to bitch at the scientists for not finding a cure in time," Clint said. Clint didn't believe the lab existed, but if he did he still wouldn't be happy.

"You know I can always smell your attitude from a mile away," Wesley joked. Everybody began to laugh. Savian noticed everybody was beginning to smile, he did the right thing.

"What about you Tristan, what are you going to when we get there?" Amanda asked.

Tristan thought about what Amanda just asked him. What would he do? Tristan looked at Mary and replied, "Settle."

A loud noise erupted through the street. Everybody was looking around wondering where it came from. Hannah listened closely to where the noise was coming from. She began running down the street trying to find the source, and Scott yelled "Hannah wait."

She ran down the street, thinking that the noise came from people. The noise sounded like some kind of horn. She was beginning to think there was a civilization within the city, that it was the lab. She began to smile as she ran. She turned the corner, and saw the hundreds of walkers in front of her, instantly dropping her smile.

The group showed up behind Hannah, seeing the walkers. Everybody was in panic instantly. The walkers turned and saw the group. They began running after the group. See because of those barricades, the walkers were not feed for quite a long time, but when Hannah arrived, it was like she ringed the dinner bell. Scott screamed, "Everybody, run!"

Tristan and Scott fired their rifles down, killing only a few walkers. They like the group started running behind. Everybody kept turning around and firing at the group of walkers, but it had little effect. No amount of ammunition they had would even put a dent in the herd.

Tristan noticed the building ahead. He thought he might be able to barricade those does and keep the walkers away briefly. He yelled to the group "Everybody, head for that building," before he tripped along the way.

Clint turned around, fired his shotgun at the walker in front of Tristan. He fell, and Tristan stood up. He took out his revolver and used the end of it to smack down a walker. Scott ran up, stood beside Tristan and began firing. Tristan grabbed his rifle from the ground. He and Scott began firing their rifles down to the herd. The herd got closer and closer with every round fired. Everybody kept screaming to them to get inside the building. They eventually listened and ran.

They entered the building and shut the doors as fast as they could. They barricaded the doors with anything they could find. The walkers were piling up against the wall, but they weren't breaking through. The ground ran upstairs to the next floor and shut the doors. Everybody was gasping for air after running from exhaustion. Tristan looked up to Andy with the upmost rage.

The group of marines made it just outside of the Afghan camp. The camp had three structures, one of them containing the Intel they were there for. The team was spread out along the camp hiding, waiting to attack. They all had earpieces to keep in communication with each other. All they were waiting for was Jackson's order

Jackson noticed the two snipers on the guard towers. He ordered Allan to take both out. Both guards were killed instantly. Tristan was waiting for Jackson to give the order. He aimed his rifle down at the men surrounding the camp, waiting to pull to trigger. Jackson over the com said "Alright, light them up," and Tristan fired.

The group fired in cover at first, taking out the first half of the soldiers. They ran in guns blazing. Tristan hid behind a building for cover from someone shooting at him. He threw a grenade, killing two men simultaneously. The team had no problem killing every man on sight. It took them not even five minutes to completely clear out the camp.

Everybody met in the center of the camp. Jackson said "Alright, Tristan and Peter, you're with me. The rest of you check the others houses. If you find that Intel just give me a call on the link." The group split up into the three houses, waiting for whatever they might find.

The building appeared to be empty. They proceeded down the with caution. There were three doors down the hall, one on the left one on the right and one at the end. Tristan and Allan opened the first two doors, both empty. Jackson used hand signals to bring them both by his side at the center door. He took out a flash bang, giving the idea about what's going to happen next.

He opened the door slightly and threw the flash bang inside. Once they heard it go off, they opened the doors all the way. There were three men inside that were blinded by the flash. Tristan, Jackson and Allan shot them simultaneously. They walked inside the building, starring at a room full of computers that had codes spread out along the tables. Jackson just whispered, "Bingo."

Tristan walked over to Andy and aggravated said "I though you said there weren't any walkers in the city. You said they probably built the barricades so the walkers couldn't get in. This is your entire fault," as he kept pointing his finger towards Andy's face.

Andy grabbed Tristan's shirt with aggression, replying "I never said I went passed the barricades. I never said I explored the entire city. I never said it would be completely safe, so you get off my back!" He threw Tristan backwards far enough to let him breathe.

Scott got up and said "Whoever built the barricades, they didn't do it to keep walkers out, and they did it to keep people out. The walkers are imprisoned within the city." Everybody became silent. "There's no lab after all," Scott said, shattering the little hope everybody had left.

"Then what do we do?" Phillip asked.

Molly walked over to the window, seeing the walkers still pushing against the building. "Well, there's no way we can leave the building right now, we'll be dead within minutes."

"So what do we do?" Karin asked.

Tristan Mary and Scott looked around the rest of the building. The building was only three stories high. From the looks of it, it was just a really large stock exchange market. They explored the entire building, not finding any other way to exit the building. They went to the first floor, avoiding being seen by the walkers. They snuck around the back, finding an exit door that leads to an alley.

They walked back up to the second floor, back to the group. Tristan said "Alright there's a door down stairs that leads into an alley. We'll spend the night here, and first thing tomorrow morning we'll escape this forsaken city. Any objections?"

Sarcastically Clint said "No sir."

The group spread out across the market on every floor, besides the first one. They didn't have anything really to sleep on; all their sleeping bags and pillows were left behind with their cars outside the barricades. Everybody tried to feel comfortable, but knowing that outside the market were hundreds of hungry walkers looking to fill their appetite didn't sit well with them. Everybody was trying so hard to relax, everybody except Andy, who would keep looking out the window, staring down the walkers.

Hannah noticed Andy looking out the window. She felt bad that Tristan blamed him for what happened. She walked up to him and said "You know it's not your fault. I know that, and we all know that."

"Yeah well I don't care," Andy replied.

"You should," Hannah said.

"Why are you telling me this anyway, can't you just leave me alone in piece?" Andy asked from his annoyance.

Hannah stuttered, "Because it was my fault. If I hadn't run after that sound, I wouldn't have gotten the walkers to run after us."

Andy turned around and said "Yeah well maybe you're right," before he walked away.

Scott took off his blue plaid shirt, revealing the Scottish tattoo he had below his neck to Amanda. Amanda didn't know what it meant but truth be told she didn't want to know right now. She noticed Scott's dog tags he was still wearing. She walked up to Scott and began looking at his dog tags.

"So you and Tristan were in the military together?" Amanda asked.

"In the end yeah, but for a while we were in different squads," he replied.

"Why did you both leave?" Amanda asked.

"We both left pretty much for the same reason. We got sick of watching people die. Except something like that is hard to forget, you can't just leave it all behind," Scott replied.

"Was Tristan a good soldier?" Amanda asked.

Scott smiled and replied "One of the best."

Phillip heard Molly crying in the next room. He went to investigate. He found her sitting up against a wall balling her eyes out. Phillip assumed it probably had to do with Nicole, and the fact that the lab didn't exist. Phillip still asked "What's wrong?"

"What's the point in fighting Phillip, were all going to die anyways," Molly said.

"You don't know that," Phillip replied.

"This is god's punishment for us. Even if there was a safe zone it would never really be safe don't you understand? This place has now become a living hell for all life," she replied as her tears fell down her face. Phillip was concerned with Molly with everything she's been through. He sat down beside her, raping his arm around him constantly repeating "We'll be okay."

Tristan found a bathroom and was washing his face. Mary was beside the door quietly watching him. Tristan's shoulder was hurting him a little bit from when he fell down from the herd. He removed his shirt, looking closely at his shoulder. Mary noticed the scar on his arm and walked over.

She wrapped her arms around him asking "How'd you get that scar again?"

"I got it right before Oscar died," he replied. He kept washing down his face and began to wonder where he was supposed to go next with the group. He asked Mary, "What do you think going to happen next?"

"What do you mean?" Mary wondered.

"We came here hoping for some kind of safe haven, and that just went to hell, what are we supposed to do? Has the world really gone to hell?"

Mary turned Tristan around and looked him in the eye. She replied "I don't know, but I know we'll be okay," before she started to kiss him.

Tristan stared at the three bodies for ten minutes, waiting for Jackson to gather the Intel they needed. They packed up all the codes left at the station, and used transferred any information on the computer back to their camp. Tristan looked outside at the desert, seeing how secluded it was. Tristan was pretty much done with this operation. The action he had today didn't help his mental status from what happened to Oscar months ago.

Through the com, Jackson called to everybody saying "Alright we've got it, everybody meet outside." They geared up and began walking down the hall. The heard someone talking in a room beside the computers in his native tongue. Peter quickly took out his pistol pointing it at the door, waiting for Jackson's order to go in. Jackson nodded giving him the ok.

He opened the door, seeing a man holding a walkie talkie. All three off them pointed their rifles at the man, telling him to drop the phone. The man stood there, not saying a word. Tristan was hoping this man would cooperate, and that he wouldn't have to die.

The man screamed in the phone something Tristan and Jackson didn't understand. Jackson immediately shot him in the head. Tristan looked at him with disgust. Jackson walked over and grabbed the phone, asking Peter "What did he just say?"

Peter replied, "Well, it's hard to make out, but I think he said something like 'light them up'." Tristan didn't understand what he meant by that, but unfortunately for him, he would soon find out.

The group woke up next day. They didn't bother with relaxation at first; they immediately were ready to get out of the city. They spent all afternoon planning out how to escape, except it wasn't much of a plan. They knew they couldn't escape from the front door without making a sound. They decided to use the back door leading into the alley. They realized it was going to get dark soon, so it was either now or never. They all walked downstairs to the alley door. They all had the same guns they were using yesterday by their side. Tristan put his hand on the door handle asking everybody if they were ready. Everyone nodded.

He opened the door, seeing a walker right in front of them. The walker growled at them first, but was later silenced with Scott's bowie knife. People avoided looking at the walker; they were instead focussing on the alley. They noticed two more walkers down the path. Scott ordered "Alright, Andy Tristan, take the lead, everyone stay close."

Andy and Tristan rushed down the path quickly but quietly to not get the walkers to notice. Andy took out his boomerang, throwing it to the first walker, piercing its brain. Tristan ran up behind the second walkers and used the end of his revolver. He beat the walker down fast and waved his hand to tell everybody to continue. Andy took out the boomerang from the walkers head and continued following.

They were by the gate at the end of the alley, looking on the streets. The streets appeared almost empty, only three walkers around. Clint asked "Alright what do we do now?" Tristan didn't see a barricade around, thinking it'll be a little bit of a stretch still.

He looked across the street, noticing a fallen skyscraper that looked about thirty stories high. He walked over to Andy and asked "What's behind that building?"

Andy replied "There's a barricade behind that building, except it'll be hard to get around without getting into trouble."

Tristan was thinking why bother going around the building when they can just go through it. He replied "We don't have to go around."

"Then where do we go?" Phillip asked.

"Through the building and reach the barricade on the other side," Tristan replied.

"Are you sure that's a good idea, it looks like it's about to collapse?" Wesley inferred.

"Yes I'm sure, it'll be okay," Tristan replied.

Scott grabbed Tristan's arm pulling him away from the group so he could speak to them privately. He whispered "Are you sure you want to go through with this? If we reach trouble in there…"

"It'll be fine, trust me," he replied.

Tristan opened the gate, having everybody run onto the street. Clint hit one of the walkers in the leg with his shot gun, collapsing him. He used the end of it to smash the walkers head. Scott ran up behind the second walker, piercing its brain with his bowie knife. Molly ran up behind the third walker, tripping it down. She used her foot to beat the walker to death. Everybody ran up to the fallen building, a little hesitant to enter.

"Alright, everybody ready?" Tristan asked. Everybody had an emotionless expression, he could sense their fear. Tristan knew if he could guide them through the building and out of the city, he can finally earn their trust. He nodded his head, taking charge. He headed inside the building, grasping on the hope of escaping the city on the other end.

The team gathered outside the camp. They were all tired from killing and extracting the data from the camp, and they were all ready to go back. Jackson said to everybody "Alright we got what we came for, now we just have to wait for our escort."

Tristan was sitting down a log. He was looking at his dog tags, constantly wondering why he joined the military. Before, he joined because he wanted to take his brother's place. But after Oscar died, he wasn't sure why he was doing it anymore. He thought to himself that once his time was up in the military, he would never come back. That was the last thought in his head before he noticed something peculiar in the sky.

He stood up walking towards Jackson. He kept staring at something in the sky, and he didn't know what it was. Jackson noticed Tristan looking into the sky, so he started looking too. It wasn't long before the entire team kept looking into the sky.

"What is that?" Allan asked.

"Maybe it's our transport?" Peter asked.

"It doesn't look like a helicopter though," Tristan replied.

"Well either way is that ours?" Allan asked.

It was coming closer and closer, and from Tristan's eye, it looked like an AC-130. Tristan kept remembering what the man said before he died. The words "Light them up" kept breaching Tristan's mind.

A shot came out of the carrier, hitting the ground causing everybody to flinch in fear. Jackson screamed "Everybody run!" Everybody started running as fast as they could to escape the camp. Another shot came from the carrier. Tristan looked back, seeing four men from his team hit by the shot, sent flying. He kept running, hearing another shot hit the ground behind him.

Jackson tripped. Tristan turned around and looked him in the eye. A shot from the carrier hit Jackson directly. Tristan kept running. He jumped after hearing another shot. The shot hit the ground before he collapsed. He went unconscious.

The group walked through the building carefully. Everybody was cautious. They walked through it without a single word uttered from anyone. They spent over ten minutes trying to figure out a way of leaving. Then made it to the end of the building, seeing something they wish they didn't want to.

They saw the barricade, but there were just as many walkers they saw before in front of it. If they dropped down they wouldn't make it to the other side. Clint shouted "What do we do now genius?!" to Tristan.

"Let's go back, we'll find another way around," Tristan replied. Everybody turned around, seeing two walkers inside appear.

"Everybody get back!" Clint screamed. He loaded his shotgun preparing to fire.

Scott screamed "No!" before he fired. Tristan turned around, seeing the walkers on the street notice the shots fired. They started walking towards the structure, coming towards the group.

Tristan screamed, "Everybody run!"

They ran back from where they came. The building began shaking from the constant motion. More walkers entered the building from behind. The group kept running. They reached the top floor, seeing more walkers in front of them. The structure continued shaking.

Everybody began shooting and firing at the walkers in front. More and more kept coming. Tristan turned around and saw more walkers approach from behind. They continued shooting from front and behind. They were running low on ammunition. The structure continued shaking. Tristan noticed that the building wouldn't be able to hold any more weight, and unfortunately he was right.

The floor below them split in half, including some of the walkers, Clint Karin Phillip Savian Molly and Wesley all fell. The rest of the group began looking up again, seeing more walkers shoot. Amanda Andy continued firing. The floor beneath them continued cracking, causing them to fall as well. Only Hannah Mary Scott and Tristan remained.

The floor shifted. Hannah immediately fell. More walkers kept coming from behind. Scott grabbed his gun, began shooting, he let go, shooting as he fell, but he was gone within seconds. Only Mary and Tristan remained. More walkers kept coming towards them.

The piece of metal Mary was grabbing onto broke off. She slid, but Tristan grabbed her arm. Tristan was struggling holding onto Mary while at the same time hanging onto to floor. He kept screaming "Don't let go, don't let go!"

He looked into Mary's eyes. At that moment, everything became oblivious to Tristan. He was happy that he and Mary were together again. He didn't care about the walkers or the fact that there was no safe zone. He was just glad Marry was here. Mary's last words to him were "We'll be okay," before she let go.

Tristan screamed "Mary no!" She fell. Tristan took out his revolver and began shooting at the walkers above him. His revolver was empty shortly. The metal he was grabbing broke off. He fell.

Tristan woke up, disoriented. He forgot what happened. He looked around. He was dizzy and he had a pounding headache. He saw fire all around him. He noticed a couple of bodies not too far from him. He tried to stand up, but he fell again. He noticed his dog tags were lying in front of him. He crawled, desperately trying to grab them, and he did.

He remembered what happened. His entire team was dead, but he survived someone, like he always does. He looked at his dogs tags, wondering why he was still here. He began crying. He never had any respect for Sergeant Jackson, but he regretted that now.

He heard helicopters from above him. He was still shaken up from the AC-130 attack. He turned around seeing a helicopter land. He covered his eyes from all the dust flying into his eyes. A man ran towards him. He was a private. He had red hair and blue eyes. Tristan was still dizzy and it was hard to make out what he was saying. The private yelled "Are you ok?" Tristan looked at his name tag. The soldier was named Scott. Tristan went unconscious again.

Tristan woke up, seeing Mary in front of him. He noticed it was night time again. He looked passed her, seeing Clint Andy and Scott firing their guns at a group of walkers in front of them. He continued looking around, seeing walkers surround the group. He was surprised that the fall didn't kill anybody. He noticed his revolver and dogs tags on the ground in front of him. He crawled towards them both. He stood up, grabbed the revolver and put it aside. He picked up his dog tags. He looked at them for a second, remembering why he left the military; he was sick of watching people die. He put his dog's tags back around his neck.

Scott Andy and Clint ran out of ammunition, throwing their guns on the ground. They back up with the rest of the group. Hannah took out her machete, ready for what every came. Andy took out his boomerang, not fearing death when it looked at him. Scott took out his bowie knife, whispering to Tristan "You ready brother?" and Tristan nodded.

Tristan took out his knife as he watched the walkers get closer and closer. He looked at Mary one more time remembered what she said before he fell. Tristan knew this was the end. He looked at the group and smiled, happy that these would be the people he would spend his last moments with. Tristan took out his knife, ready to take out as many walkers as he possibly could. The words "Light them up" popped in his mind again.

Tristan was blinded by the light that overlapped the street above him. He looked up, wondering where that was coming from. The rest of the group started looking up too. Multiple people were screaming "What is that!" The horn the echoed the streets yesterday started blasting to them. The group continued to look up, wondering, and also fearing, what was coming for them. The light covered over the entire group. Tristan grabbed Mary's hand, knowing that what she said before might possibly become a reality now.


	6. Preserve

The Walking Dead Apocalypse

Connor woke up, stretching his arms as if it was another ordinary day. He rubbed his eyes, kept thinking about all the work he needed to do today. He looked over to his dresser, seeing the picture of him and his son, he smiled. He turned over, looking at the calendar, marking off the current day. On his schedule he was meant to fix the lights down on the third floor.

He got out of bed, starting his regular routine. He showered. Washed his face with some soap, nothing more. He used body wash and shampoo to clean the rest of his body. Once he got out of the shower he would wipe his hair down with a towel. He brushed his teeth in the mirror, very thoroughly. He admired his white teeth.

He went to the cafeteria to make his own breakfast. He felt like bacon and eggs today, it's been awhile since he had that. He cooked them both fairly, although he was no cook. He sat alone in the empty cafeteria eating his breakfast.

He put on his outfit. It looked like a janitor's outfit, however it wasn't. It was a suit made for head maintenance manager. His name was on the left side of his peck. It was a blue jumpsuit, one piece. He had worn this usually every day of his life, even though he never really did take pride in his work, although someone has to fix things around the lab.

He was on the third floor, walking towards the lights with a ladder. He went back to the elevator and grabbed his tool box. He planted the ladder underneath the lights. It wasn't a sturdy ladder, so he was being very careful about where he placed it. He looked up to the lights raising his left eyebrow. He grabbed a screw driver and started walking up the ladder.

He opened up the lights, carefully looking into the problem. The plug in wasn't adjusted properly. He fixed the wires leading the electricity into the lights; however the lights were still not fixed. He looked carefully at the long bulbs. One of them was broken. It was one of those lights that required all of them to work in order to function efficiently.

He walked over towards his old maintenance closet, trying to find a new bulb to replace the broken one. He found a nice clean bulb that would work nicely. He walked back to the ladder. He climbed back up and replaced the bulb. The lights above were back on. He smiled from his successfulness.

The building shook, nocking Connor off the ladder onto his ass. He lifted his upper half up, whispering "What the hell," to himself. He got up, wondering why the building just shook. He ran towards the office side of the floor. He ran outside on the balcony. The balcony was empty, besides to the spotlight that could be shined down on the streets.

He looked down on the streets. He couldn't see anything, it was far too dark. He kept hearing gun fire below him, and also the walkers surrounding the building. He walked over to the spotlight, ready to see what was approaching him. He turned on the spotlight, directly pointing in onto the streets. His jaw dropped from what he was seeing.

The light shined on the streets, shining on about a dozen people or so. Connor's eyes were wide as they could be. He didn't think people were still alive. He said "Oh Christ" to himself. He took out a trigger from his pocket. He pressed the button, causing a loud horn to echo in the streets. He looked down to the crowd, beginning to smile, knowing he wouldn't be alone anymore.

Preserve

Tristan kept staring at the light from above. He kept hearing Clint scream "What the hell is that." Tristan looked at Mary, seeing she was confused as he was. He kept hearing the horn that was blasting above the light. It was the same horn that was echoing from the streets yesterday. He wasn't sure where the light and sound were coming from, but he knew someone had to be doing it.

The light and horn switched off. Tristan and the group were in the dark again. In front of the group, more lights turned on. Tristan turned over to see what was causing it. He saw two generators, with a man wearing a jumpsuit in the center. The generators were electrically powered; Tristan could notice that because the flow of electricity was visible on top. However, he didn't pay that much attention to the generators. He looked at the man in the center wearing a jumpsuit, and was quite curious at this point of who he was.

"Everybody get inside!" Connor screamed from the distance. The group had no hesitation to what he said. The walkers behind them kept coming closer and closer. The group ran as fast as they could until they could reach Connor. They didn't know who he was, although at this point they didn't care. Once they all had run passed Connor, he immediately ran to the left generator. The group stopped, wondering what he was doing. He flicked on a switch, and the generator sounded like it was beginning to function, but the group didn't know what its function was yet.

Connor stepped away from the generators and back with the group. The group was about to run again, but Connor quickly raised his hand saying "Wait." The group stood there, wondering why they had to be patient. They looked over to the walkers coming towards them, and they started to panic. One walker had passed the generator, and it stopped. The group stared at the walkers, wondering why it came to an abrupt halt.

The walkers started foaming from the mouth. Blood erupted from its eyes and ears. The group began to lower their shoulders from relief. Most of them didn't understand what was happening, but they knew it was protective. That's what most of them thought before witnessing the walkers head explode right in front of them. Connor smiled.

"C'mon let's get inside, as long as those generators run we'll be fine," Connor said. Everybody ran inside the building. A good half of the group took a knee from the exhaustion. After falling out of a building that split in half and almost torn apart by a hungry group of walkers, they felt a sense of lassitude.

"What was that machine?" Amanda asked.

Connor turned to her and replied "It's an electrically charged generator that emits a sonic frequency so high it could make anyone's head explode. It's a perfect defense against the biters."

Scott took out a cigarette, ready to light it. Connor looked over to him, quickly saying "I'd prefer you didn't smoke in here sir." Scott ignored Connor and lit his cigarette. "Or…you know I guess that's fine," Connor said feeling impotent.

Tristan looked around the building. He noticed staircases and windows everywhere. He assumed this was about a five or six story building, and he was correct. He looked over to the man in the jumpsuit asking him "What the hell is this place?"

"Welcome to Chicago's finest biological and chemical research lab. They called is SF-13, but I like to call it 'Preserve'," Connor replied.

"Why Preserve?" Phillip asked.

"This is the centre of Chicago that's preserves the knowledge of the biters, and all man kind," Connor replied.

"If that's the case, where is everybody?" Mary asked.

"I'm the last one remaining," Connor replied.

"What happened to all of them?" Andy asked.

"I'm afraid that's classified," Connor replied.

Scott walked over to Connor and aggressively grabbed his shirt pulling him towards his face. He said "Look buddy, we just spent the last two days fighting for our lives trying to find this place, and we would really appreciate some answer, ok?" Connor looked into his eyes with fear; he could tell he was serious.

"Scott, let him go, he just saved our lives," Tristan said.

Scott let go of Connor and replied, "For now," before he backed away.

Tristan walked over to Connor, asking him "Who are you?"

"My name is Connor Wilson," he replied.

It took almost every ounce of his strength and brain power that he had, so that by the end, everything was again running smoothly. Covered in sweat after completing the task that consumed his day, Connor finally took the chance to rest and get off his feet for a minute.

"Wilson!" was the first thing he heard after a peaceful minute or two of silence, broken by the bark of a man named Maxwell, an asshole, but also the head of this building, and as such, to be shown respect.

"Yes sir?" Connor replied, even though knowing what he was about to hear.

"Get off your goddamn feet and do whatever you got to do to make sure this never happens again. If these generators are damaged beyond repair next time, and there better not be a next time, and poof. That's it, we're done. All our research, all our files stored here, gone. I mean do I really have to explain to you how important it is that we keep the power here up and running, so we can preserve what we have here? Do I have to draw it out for you? C'mon I'm serious."

Connor bit his tongue. Not wanting to say anything that would get him in more trouble that necessary. So instead he responded with a stark "No sir" which seemed to satisfy Maxwell, and exited the basement, cluttered with machines to keep the laboratory up and running, and upstairs where everything went on. The foyer of the laboratory was nothing much to be shocked at. A big empty circular area with a receptionist to the right of the main entrance. To the left a staircase, which led up to a balcony and in turn, lead to all the departments. Physics, chemistry, nuclear research, the IT departments, Biology. Connor had been hearing mumbling that the biology department had possibly stumbled upon something ground breaking, but he didn't know exactly what it was. He believes it was to above his pay grade and dismissed it with that.

In the basement Connor had just left was his personal office, a little broom closet with a desk, and all the generators which powered this modern day coliseum and which Connor had spent his day repairing. That was the difficulty of being a maintenance man, there was no thank you when everything worked, but the first time everything goes wrong, it's on you. But no matter how abominable his day had been, he remembered what he always told himself, that something was always right around the corner.

The group had been in the lab for over two hours now. Connor gave them the full tour. He showed them the cafeteria, the library, the main office, but his final spot of the tour was his old office, and where the generators where kept. Ever since the apocalypse broke out, he avoided that place as best as he could. He didn't want to be reminded of what his life was like before the outbreak began. Before today, he hadn't entered it out of shear interest ever since the day the lab was considered a safe zone. He only ever went in there to make sure the generators were still preserved. He brought the group there.

"Finally, this is the generator room," Connor said.

"Generator room?" Karin asked. The everybody thought that the two generators out front were the only ones within the building. Why would there be more kept questioning in their minds.

"Yes. This is what powers the entire building. It's the centre of all knowledge that we've preserved as human. All the research, chemical, physical, biological, it's all kept within this structure. Without these generators, this place would be nothing," Connor replied.

"Why bother preserving the knowledge of mankind?" Clint asked. "In case you haven't noticed, civilization has fallen." Clint found Connor annoying. Unlike the rest of the group, he thought Connor had it easy. From their point of view, he's been locked safe away inside the laboratory without having to fight for his life drastically like everybody else has.

"Well now that's a bit farfetched, don't you think?" Connor asked. Connor didn't know what humanity was like anymore beyond the barricades, but he still thought civilization had found a way to carry on.

"What do you know? You're just a scientist. You haven't had to fight out there. Trying to hang onto your life every moment of everyday. Its hell out there," Scott said aggravated.

"Scott that's enough," Savian replied. "We appreciate us you letting us stay here. We'll do whatever you want to earn our keep." Unlike Scott, Savian appreciated Connor's actions. Without him, they wouldn't be standing there right now.

"Well that's good to hear," Connor replied. He was glad to hear that not everybody from this new group was appalled by everything he spoke. "But for now I'll let you all wrest, it's been a long day for you all I'm sure. I'll take you to where you'll be staying for the time being."

Connor brought the group up to the fourth floor. It had bedrooms for everybody to stay in. Andy Wesley and Hannah stayed in one room together. Like usual, Andy didn't speak, and Wesley and Hannah were chatter boxes.

"Look like Scott was right this whole time, there really was a safe zone," Wesley said.

"Yeah, thank god we made in here in one piece," Hannah replied.

Andy sat on his chair, sharpening his boomerang. He replied "One piece? A few more moments out there we would've become pieces. And just because were here now doesn't mean we should let our guard down."

"Dude you are such a downer sometimes," Wesley replied before he lay on the bed. He didn't care what Andy was talking about, just that he and everybody else could breathe and be safe for another day to come.

Clint and Karin didn't head to their bedrooms at first. They went to the cafeteria, feeling completely famished. Instead of finding food, they found a bottle of wine. The popped it open, celebrating their new found safe haven. They were talking for a long while about their future together. Karin kept suggesting to Clint that this could be real good place to start a life here, so long as Clint agrees to be a part of it. Clint raises his eyebrows from happiness, regardless of the lack of eyebrows.

Inside another room, Savian and Phillip found a deck of cards .They spent an hour playing games. Kings in the corners, black jack, poker, anything they knew how to play. They couldn't remember the last time they had this much fun with a deck of cards. They now started to remember that even the tiniest things can affect your perspectives on things.

"You want to play another one?" Phillip asked.

"Yeah why not," Savian replied. As Phillip shuffled the cards, Savian said "Do you really believe this place is safe from the walkers? I mean yes those generators outside can keep them away, but really for how long."

"I think we just need to make the best of what's yet to come. It's like Connor's been saying. You need to preserve, and I say we preserve our thoughts with another memory of you losing a game of poker," Phillip replied.

Savian laughed and said "Fair enough my friend."

Scott looked outside the window, down on the herd of walkers. Amanda behind him grabbed his waist and said "You were right; there really was a safe zone."

"I get that the rest of the group feels safe here, but I feel like there's something Connor's not telling us," he replied.

Amanda spun Scott around. She placed her hands on Scott's face, whispering "All that matters is you got us here safely."

"Tristan did that, not me," he replied. Although Scott thought it was foolish to head through the collapsing building, if it wasn't for that decision Tristan made, the group wouldn't have found the lab. He understands that he deserves credit much more than he needed. Amanda leaned into him, beginning to kiss his troubles away.

Connor showed Tristan and Mary their room. Mary entered, but before Tristan did, he wanted to talk to Connor. He said "Hey wait up a second." Connor stood there, waiting for whatever Tristan was about to say. "I just wanted to thank you personally, for everything."

"Ah hell it was nothing, I don't have to be alone anymore now," Connor replied. "And if I may, you have a damn good looking lady."

Tristan laughed and replied "Yeah I guess I do. She's really the only family I've got left. What about you, where's your family?"

Connor looked down to the ground, having his smile turn to a depressing frown. Tristan knew he opened a door that Connor would find hard to close, so Tristan shut it himself. He patted Connor on the shoulder and said "Anyways, thanks again," before he closed the door.

Finally finished work, Connor packed up his things, and headed out the back door to his car. A little Sedan, but it got him from point A to B so it was good enough for him when all he was about was surviving one day to the other. As he exited the building, he could hear a faint, constant roar. Sounded like Vatican City on Easter Sunday. Connor wondered what all of it was about, but didn't think that he should be worried. Working in downtown Chicago, there was probably a sale or something going on somewhere.

Not thinking much, he got in his car and began to drive home. Looking at the building before leaving to parking lot, he found to himself anticipating getting home and seeing his son, John. Seeing his wife Jamie was another story. He loved her, of course. Be she had problems. Her moods changed drastically within the hour, and she took the smallest things to an extreme Connor wouldn't have though possible in some instances. But he did love her. Anyone could see that. And he loved his son more than life itself. Of everything in the world worth preserving, Connor believed John was about anything on that list.

Chicago rush our was something to dread. Connor dreaded it every day, morning and evening. But this day there was something different. There weren't so many people heading back home, as it seems there were leaving. The amount of people heading out of the city seemed unusual to Connor.

"Probably just for the long weekend coming up. Everyone's got somewhere to be," he told himself dismissing it then and there. The rest of the drive he saw more strange things however. He witnessed someone break into an electronics store and make way with T.V.s, others with CD players, and others breaking into other stores and taking other things. Connor wondered what everything was about, and whether the city was about to have a riot on its hands. But the more he thought about that, the more he wanted to simply get home to his wife and son.

"Daddy!" was the first thing he heard upon coming through the door. His son, eight years old, ran to his father, crashing into his arms

"Hey kiddo! How was your day?" Connor asked his son.

"Good. We got sent home early today."

"What?" How come?"

"No one said, they just called mommy and she came and picked me up."

"Connor" Jamie called from the bedrooms. "I need to talk to you"

Damn, Connor thought. This should be good. "Just wait here buddy. Just watch your cartoons for a bit," he told his son, then went to face whatever was awaiting him.

"What is it?" Connor asked his wife, wondering what the matter was this time.

"We need to get out of the city," was all she said.

"What? What the hell are you talking about?" Connor was confused.

"Did you hear the news at all? Did you see nothing on the drive home?" Something going on here. Riots are starting, people are looting stores. Please Connor, we need to get out of here. Something's happening, and I don't know what it is, but it isn't safe here."

"Absolutely not. You know I can't just up and leave. I have a job here. That place depends on me. Without me it all falls apart. You know that, right? So no, we cannot leave the city. And whatever's going on, I'm sure it will blow over in a day or two. Something's always going on here."

"This is different. Please, we have to…"

"No that's it. We stay here. How do you think John would react if we just got up and left? He has a life here that we have to preserve. I'm not destroying that because you have a bad feeling about something."

Connor left the room, pissed off. He couldn't believe Jamie would suggest something like that, no matter what ideas have formed in her head previously. Like he said, this would all blow over. Something is always happening in Chicago, and most of the time it's never good.

He decided that before he goes to bed tonight he should play with John for a bit. He was still too young to understand some of the mental problems his mother had, and he didn't want to expose John to things he didn't have to know yet. He believed as a parent it was is job to preserve his child's innocence as long as he could.

It was the next morning. Tristan awoke from his bed, having the one descent night of sleeps he's had in a long time. He walked over to the window. He for once ignored the walkers, and instead looked upon the city. He never went to Chicago before, and he wasn't sure if what he was seeing was even a fraction of what it used to be. Mary grabbed Tristan's waist, kissing him on the cheek while she whispered "Morning."

The entire group was down by the cafeteria. Instead of talking about new tactics to survive, they talked about their new founded safe haven. Connor looked at the bunch, feeling great that he woke up the morning knowing he had somebody to talk to for once.

Phillip raised his glass of water, saying "I would like to toast to Mr. Wilson over here." Everybody raised their glasses and afterwards clapped for him. Connor started to smile; he never received such appreciation from such a large amount of people before. To him, preserving everything has finally paid off.

Molly looked around and said "Where's Clint and Scott?"

Scott and Clint were on the fifth floor, looking around the building. Scott asked Clint to help him with something, but still Clint doesn't know what that is. Scott still doesn't trust Connor, and he was trying to find something to make that evident.

"Scott what are we looking for exactly?" Clint asked. Scott did not reply. He turned over and saw a door with a sword symbol in the centre. Scott was curious to what it was, so he opened it. There were guns inside the entire room, all organized and such. Assault rifles, snipers, blades, shotguns, basically anything a small army needed. Clint said "Wow, for a scientist he has quite artillery doesn't him?"

"Clint, if you don't mind I think I'd like to be alone in here for a moment," Scott replied. Clint left, not understanding what Scott wanted. Scott hadn't seen an arsenal like this since the military. He looked over at every single kind of gun, but the one that really caught his eye was the M3000 shotgun. He grabbed it. He unlocked the clip, noticing it was full.

"It's amazing what guns can do for you nowadays huh?" Tristan said as he stood by the door.

Scott walked over with the shotgun, saying "Don't you find it odd that a scientist would have so many guns? Considering he has those generators out front?"

"Yeah maybe, but so what. He's cautious," Tristan replied.

"I can't explain it, but there's something about him that I don't trust. He's keeping something from us," Scott replied.

"I'll go talk to him myself, get some more answers. Does that sound good?" he said.

"I guess, but I'm still going to look around," Scott replied.

Tristan looked around for Connor. He went down to his old office and found him. He just saw Connor standing there. He called out his name, and in panic Connor turned. Tristan was confused as to why he was so paranoid all of the sudden. Connor greeted Tristan with pleasure, and they both exited the room.

"What can I do for you Tristan?" Connor asked.

"Well, for some reason my friend Scott doesn't trust you. And he found your artillery upstairs. He doesn't understand why you would need so many guns in the first place," Tristan said.

"They're not for me. They were for the people living with me before," he replied.

"Ok, but what happened to them?" Tristan asked.

"I'm afraid that's still classified Tristan," Connor replied.

"Well none the less, Scott's looking for some answers, and for some trust," Tristan said.

"Well, if you want answers, I'll ask that you and your entire group meet me up in the main office in one hour. You'll have all the answers you'll need there."

"Alright, one hour," Tristan replied before leaving.

Connor awoke the next morning having barely any sleep at all. There was definitely something going on in the city, though he didn't know what it was. He looked over at Jamie, sound asleep. She could sleep through a hurricane, Connor thought to himself, and half the time there was like she was dead. He went to go look in on John before he left for work. The schools were going to remain close for the time being, though he didn't understand what for. And thought maybe its best than he doesn't.

He went outside and immediately and sense of apprehension flowed through him. It was as if his neighbourhood was a ghost town. But he could hear the faint sounds of rioting and looting in the distance. He walked to his car and a scream pierced the almost silent air. Followed by more. Connor was beginning to think that what was going on in the city might concern him and his family. But of course he couldn't leave those behind. Getting in his car, he drop off to face another day.

Upon driving for about ten minutes he quickly realized that this day was not going to be like any other. No one was on the streets. Roads and stores were all but abandoned, with cars without owners blocking the ways. He could still hear rioting but it sounded as though it was happening further off. As if nothing was going on inside the city, but the edge and outside of it was another story.

Connor saw a few people on his lonesome commute, tears filling their eyes and with what looked like bite marks that looked somewhat familiar, but he couldn't place where he had seen them before. Then out of nowhere Connor was forced to bring his vehicle to an abrupt halt. In front of him and appearing to block all roads leading to his workplace were these massive barricades. Cars stacked on tires, stacked on whatever it seemed was available. "What in the name off…" Connor said to himself.

How was he supposed to make it to work now? To hell with it, the thought. "I'm going home, surely they'll have to understand." And as he turned around, pissed off he again thought to himself, something's always around the corner.

Scott did not know he was supposed to head upstairs to the main office like everybody else. Instead, he went down to Connor's old office. He went through the doors and anything else to find what he was looking for, even though he didn't know what he was looking for. He looked at the generators briefly, noticing that there was a warning sign saying how flammable they were. He didn't care about the generators though. He found a filing cabinet and went through it. He found a file saying Instantaneous Reanimation, he would a moment later read exactly what that meant, and it made him upset.

Everybody was upstairs in the main office, besides Scott. They were staring down at a monitor that was about to present a presentation for anyone watching. Connor asked everybody if they were ready, and everybody nodded. He played the video.

The video opened up with an Asian scientist talking about a new come virus that has hit a global scale. He explained that new creatures resurrected from people's body's now walk the earn, and are known to be called walkers. The first half of the video everybody knew, nothing special. It continued with the points about if you're bit then you'll turn into one of the walkers, nothing new to the group.

The video continued on with what happens once an individual turns. They had a patient from the lab volunteer for the procedure. It explains that once you turn, after how many hours of waiting for that from the initial bite, the stem of your brain activates, making you get up and walk around. But all the memories you shared, all the characteristics that made you human, they were all eradicated. The video shut off.

"So hold on, it reactivates your brain?" Molly asked.

"Just the stem," Connor replied.

"But how can a virus resurrect the dead?" Karin asked.

"Unfortunately, we never gathered enough knowledge to ever know," he replied.

"So even the tiniest bite and we become a walker?" Savian asked.

"Basically yes," he replied.

"Alright. Now I have to ask this, but those barricades within the city, what are those?" Tristan asked.

"It was something the government put up to keep the walkers outside of the city," he replied.

"Well that's false. On our way over here, the walkers were inside the city, not out," Clint said.

"Well, unfortunately we had a lot of accident within the lab, and hell broke loose," he replied.

"Is that what happened to your people?" Phillip asked.

"No, and I'm getting sick of saying this, but that's classified. I'm not supposed to tell any of you were all my people went," Connor said assertively.

"So that's it then, just make sure were never bit?" Hannah said.

"Yes basically," he replied.

"No, not exactly," said Scott, without anybody noticing he entered the room. He was holding the file he found in Connor's old office.

"What do you have there?" Mary asked Scott.

"A file I found downstairs. Listen to what it has to say. 'Any subject ending up in departure will result in instant reanimation'," Scott replied.

"What does that mean?" Clint asked.

"It means that no matter how we die, we turn," Scott replied. Everybody dropped their jaw from what they just heard. Tristan remembered Murray at that moment. The moment that he killed him. The moment he took his gun and shot him. The moment…where he shot him in the chest, and not the head.

Everybody turned to Connor with disgust. "Don't look at me. I thought you all knew. I had to find out the hard way," he said.

"How?" Tristan asked.

"I'd rather not say," Connor replied.

Scott took out his five seven, directly pointing it at Connor's head, screaming "No more secrets!"

"I've told you all I know," Connor said.

"You're supposed to be a scientist, why can't you just fix this?" Scott yelled.

"I never said I was a scientist," Connor said.

"Then what are you?" Hannah asked.

"Head of maintenance at the lab?" Connor replied.

"Isn't that just a fancy name for janitor?" Wesley said.

Scott walked over to Connor grabbing his shirt and pointing the gun firmly on his face. Scott was furious, wondering why this guy has kept so many secrets away from the group. He was just about to pull to trigger, right before that horn noise came on again.

"What the hell is that?" Tristan asked.

Connor whispered to himself "Oh hell."

Connor arrived home, angry that he had just driven for an hour and a half for absolutely nothing, but also excited in that he'd be able to spend the day with his son. Still the thoughts were fresh in his head of those he saw in the city, the tears streaming down their faces, blood dripping from their clothes and he wondered what could've brought that on, but just as quickly put that out of his mind.

He walked in the door as silently as he could; fearful that John may still be asleep, although he doubted it. It was half past ten and John would be anxious to start the day. However Connor couldn't hear the sound of the T.V., or the sound of dishes in the kitchen. Something's wrong he thought to himself. He didn't know why exactly he though this, but he knew.

He glanced in the kitchen. Empty. Except for an empty bottle of Jack Daniels.

"What the hell? Jamie, Jesus," he gasped. How could she do something like this? Drink to extent alone with their child in the house. He walked furiously to their bedroom, and on the way quickly looked in John's room. He wasn't in there. He made it to his room, gripped the door handle and threw it open.

He stood there for a while. He didn't know how long exactly. He couldn't be sure when he collapsed to his knees either. Only now was he aware of the tears streaming down his face. "Oh my… no. No, no, no, no!" There clear as day, hung his wife from a rope tied to the ceiling fan. Beside her their son. Face down, a crack in his head. It appeared as though he had fallen from the chair beside his body; trying to help his mother, crack his head and bled to death. "Oh my god," he cried. He fell forward, and proceeded to lie there. Many hours passed. Connor had not moved. He sat there, sobbing, unable to control himself. Crying out, "Jamie! John! Why?!" He couldn't understand why she would do this. Yes she took things out of hand. But, this. When had she decided to do this to herself? To their son? To Connor himself?

It was then he began to hear the faint moaning. He looked over, and saw his son begin to move. "John?" he asked. "Are you okay?" It was then that John turned, and Connor saw that this was not his son. His eyes were completely vacant. As though there was no life in them at all. The bites… Connor thought. Biology, was this the cause? Something in his lab? No it couldn't be. That's when John lunged for him. "Goddamn!" Connor cried out, and without thinking produced the pocket knife he always carried, and drove it through his son's eye. "Oh god" he cried. The bites. He ripped of his son's shirt off, and saw what looked like a scratch on his torso. "No, no, no." and he sat there. Weeping silently.

Tristan Scott and Connor ran outside in front of the generators. The horn kept getting louder and louder within each second. The kept watching each walker's head explode with each one that passed the generator. Tristan noticed that the generators were beginning to shake.

"Why is that horn getting so loud?" Tristan asked.

The generators stopped shaking. In fact, the electricity you could see at the top stopped flowing. The horn shut off. Connor replied "That's why."

Several walkers walked past the generators at that point. The sonic frequency emitted before was gone. Both Tristan and Scott raised their guns and fired immediately. They took down at least a dozen walkers, but they eventually a had to run back. They closed the doors as quickly as they could. The entire group was inside the building, watching the walkers pilling up against the glass.

"There's no way that's going to hold," Andy said.

"Why the hell did the generators turn off?" Tristan asked Connor.

"This place runs on electricity. At first the generators didn't require much use because walkers didn't normally come by here. But ever since you people fell out of that building the walkers keep coming towards this place, causing the power to run out. I noticed that this morning with the other generators within the laboratory. This place will soon be our tomb," he replied.

"Why didn't you tell us that?" Scott screamed.

"Doesn't matter now. How do we get out of here?" Tristan said.

Everybody looked at Connor. Connor knew that the lab was soon to be lost, regardless of what will happen. But he didn't want anybody else leaving him. He said "I can't tell you."

"Why the hell not!" Molly said. The glass was beginning to crack.

Tristan quickly rushed to Connor and said "Please, just tell us how to get out of here." Connor looked at Tristan.

"I can't afford to be alone anymore, not for one more second," Connor said.

Tristan could see that Connor wasn't willing to tell them how to leave. "Please. I remember you telling us about preserving. About how you thought that humanity still lived on outside these walls. You weren't wrong. Humanity did survive, and it will. You can survive to. Sure it might be a stretch, but we need to preserve all we can. If we don't preserve, what will be left of humanity."

Connor thought about what Tristan said for a moment. He understood what he was talking about. He needed to preserve all of mankind; it was his job after all. Being a maintenance guy might have been his duty before, but now it's his duty to carry on the will of civilization. The walkers broke through the glass, walking towards the group.

"There's an exit at the back of this floor, go quickly," Connor said.

"Come with us Connor," Tristan said. The walkers were getting closer. The group started to run for the exit.

"I can't. If this lab is going down then I'm going down with it," Connor replied. Tristan wanted to convince Connor to join. He was about to persuade him some more, but Connor quickly said "There's no time just go!"

The walkers kept approaching the group. Tristan and Connor began running. Connor stopped Tristan and said "Wait a second." Connor took out something from his pocket. He opened up Tristan's hand and placed it there. Tristan looked at it closely. It was a pin of some sort. It looked like a black crow. Tristan didn't understand what this meant. He looked back up at Connor, and Connor whispered "They will kill you all."

Multiple people from the group screamed at Tristan telling him to hurry up. Tristan put the pin aside and ran towards the group. Connor took out a key from his pocket and began running towards his office. Connor headed for the main generator. He took out his key and looked at it briefly before the walkers entered the room.

After a few days of packing and gathering supplies, Connor was ready to head out. He'd heard before the radios went out that his workplace was acting as a type of safe zone for people. The creatures couldn't get in there due to the barriers surrounding the building. He heard the radiotherapy calling them walkers. He didn't know what that meant exactly. He was still too broken to truly feel anything.

Before leaving, he went out back to the spot where he had buried his wife and son. Just stood and looked at their places. The day he had buried them he promised them he would help people beat this plague by doing whatever it took. And just like that he left without saying a word.

The lineup to enter the safe zone was massive. With people being taken aside and checked for bites or scratches. Connor saw Maxwell form a distance. "Maxwell!" he called out. He began walking over to him. Maxwell saw him and started to back away. "No wait." He kept backing away. "Connor, you get checked. Just like everybody else."

"Please, look I can help"

"You get checked like everyone else. Then we'll see how helpful you can be." And he went inside.

Once Connor had been checked and got inside the safe zone he found Maxwell in the foyer. He walked up to him and demanded to know what was going on.

"Look I'm sorry. But he has to be cautious."

"So what the hell is this?"

"Nobody knows. All we know is if you get bit you die. But then you come back. That's all we know. That's what the Biology department has been working on for the past month. No one knows what caused it. All we know is that it's taking the city and by the sounds of things the country, by force."

"Jesus. So what is this place?"

"People are going to live here for now. The walkers can't get in here because of the barricades, and we can continue to study what this is exactly and how to deal with it. We need to keep this place safe. Humanity will fall I fear. And we need to be sure we can keep a part of who we were so that, when this is over, we can go back to what it was like before all this."

Connor nodded. He understood. He felt the same way about John and his mother. Keeping John away from his mother's problems. It was his job before, and would now become his job again as he tried to help keep these people alive. As they all tried to keep humanity.

Walker's approached from behind Connor. He looked back briefly. Before he entered the key, he said "Time to preserve."

The group ran outside of the building as fast as they could. There were no walkers around for once. They heard a loud explosion behind them and turned around. The entire laboratory exploded in front of them. The explosion caused a lot of dusk to erupt to the group. The group lost their feet for a second from the explosion. They all stood up, staring at the flames that consumed the building.

"What happened to Connor?" Hannah asked.

"He's dead," Scott replied.

"It wasn't in vain, he saved our lives," Tristan said. "Let's not forget what he did for us."

"So what do we do now?" Molly asked.

"Head passed the barricades and back to the cars," Tristan said.

The group began walking away from the building. Tristan took out the black crow pin that Connor gave him. The words "They will kill you all" kept popping inside his head. Whatever this pin stood for, he would later fear what would be coming from it. He rapped his arm around Mary.

Scott began smoking again. He looked back at the burning building. He got the group here, now it's time to get the group to go somewhere else. He blew his smoke into the wind, ready for whatever force would face the group next.


	7. Out of the Frying Pan

The Walking Dead Apocalypse

The town was deserted like it normally would be. The white left in its place waited for its owner to make his dreadful decision. There wasn't much left in the sky, just a few clouds that circled the horizon. Not that many walkers surrounded the area; it was as quiet as can be. The gunshot echoed through the streets. Walkers could hear it. Several started heading towards the area. Two from the distance noticed a man, on his knees, staring at a body from which his body was penetrated in the chest by a bullet.

Tristan looked at Murray's body as his tears fell down his face. Tristan didn't want to do what he just did, but he did it. Murray wanted to die, and that's how he wanted it. However, Tristan just murdered the only person he really knows now. He is now alone within this apocalyptic world, and he was terrified of it. He stood up, walked towards his white truck and tucked Murray's revolver away.

He entered the truck, and found nothing but discomfort. He looked over again to Murray's body, and whispered the words "I'm sorry." He found the picture of Mary taped to his windshield. He smiled, still hoping she would be alive from this point. He began to cry again. He feared Mary might be dead, and how could he prepare himself to handle that? He cried, however he began to smile again, right before he looked out of his left window again to see something he didn't expect.

It was Murray standing before him, although he was no longer Murray anymore. He was reanimated, turned. Tristan's eyes spread, he just killed Murray, and now he's a walker. Tristan whispered "Oh Christ," before Murray attacked. He bit Tristan's neck. Tristan screamed from the agonizing pain given from the bite. His last though was a question. Is he going to die, or become a demon of the netherworld that has erupted into reality?

Tristan woke up, sweating from panic. He looked out the window of his car, noticing he was still travelling. He leaded pack to his seat, relieved that what just happened was a dream. He looked over to Mary, and she said "Are you okay?" from Tristan's sudden panic. He nodded to her, signaling that he was fine, however he wasn't even sure if that was true anymore. He looked out the front window, noticing Scott and Amanda still travelling on his chopper. He wiped his face away from the sweat. He looked down to what he was holding in his hands.

It was the black crow pin that Connor gave him, right before the laboratory exploded. Tristan wasn't sure what this pin was, or exactly why Connor gave it to him. The words "They will kill you all," kept surrounding his thoughts. What kind of message was Connor trying to give to Tristan? Tristan had a few theories; however he didn't want to explore them anymore. He tucked away the pin in his pocket, trying to think of something else.

Mary began to laugh. Tristan smiled and looks over. He was confused and asked her what was so funny. She replied "I've always hated this truck of yours."

Tristan laughed and replied "Yeah, it is a piece of shit truck huh."

"My point is though where are we meant to go with it?" Mary asked. "I mean we found that supposed safe zone, and it blew up in front of us." Mary had this question in the back of her mind all week now. The group had been doing nothing but travel for the week straight. They were out of Illinois now, and entered Missouri, although they didn't fully understand why.

That question really never entered Tristan's head till there. He began remembering what Connor told them. About how there really is no such thing as a safe zone anymore? That lab had electrical generators that exploded walker's heads, but not even that stopped them. He replied "Hey, look out the window," as he pointed what's outside. He pointed to the mountains that surrounded the roads now. He looked back at Mary and replied "I think today is going to be a beautiful day," before he leaned over and kissed her. The group was now along the path of the Taum Sauk Mountains, and they had no idea what they were about to experience.

Out of the Frying Pan

Scott drove his motorcycle down the road with Amanda's arms wrapped around his waist. He squinted his eye to notice what was coming up on the road. In front of them were several deserted cars, blocking them from continuing through car. Scott raised his arm in the air, signaling that everybody else has to stop. He and Amanda got off the bike to inspect what was in front of them. Scott took out the M100 shotgun he obtained from the laboratory for safety precautions. They both looked around, not seeing a soul within any of the automobiles. Scott raised his left eyebrow and confusingly said out loud "What the hell?"

The rest of the group walked up behind them. Phillip said "What is it?"

Amanda turned and replied "It's just a bunch of deserted cars," as Scott still faced the road. Scott took out a cigarette and began smoking as he was alone with his thoughts. He was thinking that if there were that many cars there, then there would be two options. Either they chose to leave their cars and head somewhere that's safe, or they were forced to.

"Can we get around them?" Molly asked.

Phillip pointed to the other side of the road and replied "Seems like it, if we go around there we should be able to squeeze through."

"Well then let's try it," Karin said.

Scott turned around and replied "Now hang on for a second. If there are that many cars here then it can leave us with two ideas. One being they left them and headed somewhere with proper resources, shelter and protection, or the second being they were forced to. Now we're low on food correct?" The group did not reply. "Exactly. Before we move forward any farther we should look around this area and gather supplies."

"You really think we'll be able to find supplies out here? In the mountains?" Wesley replied.

"It's worth a shot," Tristan kindly spoke out. "We are low on food after all, so I wouldn't hurt to look around for a bit, plus we haven't spotted any walkers around here yet."

"Yeah exactly, not yet," Hannah said, causing everyone to go silent. Tristan thought for a moment that he and Scott could get a group going through the forest while the other half stay here and wait.

"We can put a group together, while the remainder of us stay with our vehicles. Who's in?" he asked.

"I'm with you," Scott replied, having no hesitation to Tristan's idea. Lately Scott hasn't put too much faith in Tristan's actions, but he thought it was about time to give him a chance.

"Count me in," Molly replied. For the past week Molly has been sulking in the car, barely speaking words to anyone. She is still grieving over her sister, Nicole's death.

"You sure?" Scott asked.

"Just shut up and let me," Molly aggravated. Everybody could tell Molly was annoyed with everything that has been happening. Scott didn't ask her again.

"You're not going anywhere without me," Clint said. Both Scott and Tristan were not surprised with Clint's motivation to help the group.

"Anyone else?" Tristan asked. Nobody responded. Tristan wasn't completely pleased with the lack of support he was getting. Four people in his mind didn't seem like it was going to be enough. "Alright, let's head out as soon as we can."

"I'll go," Andy said. Everybody turned toward Andy. Like he previously was, Andy did not speak to anyone for a while. The fact that he offered to go on a run with the group brought a few questions lurking in a few peoples thoughts. Tristan didn't fully understand why Andy wanted to go either; however he still needed the extra help. All Tristan did was nod.

The group readied their equipment. Tristan, Scott, Clint, Molly and Andy all gathered one gun and a blade for themselves, apart from Andy's boomerang. They all had backpacks in case they came across any supplies and resources. The remainder of the group was told to sit tight and wait till everyone else would come back.

Clint was about ready to leave. He said goodbye to Karin, but before he could she spun him and around and started kissing him. Both Scott and Tristan looked for a moment and began to laugh.

"Hey love birds lets hurry it up over there," Scott screamed out. Karin stopped kissing Clint in order for the guys not to make fun of him anymore. Clint walked away raising his eyebrows from the pleasure, regardless of the lack of eyebrows.

Amanda faced Scott, kissing him softly, wishing him luck and so he could make it back safely. Scott hugged her goodbye. Andy too was intrusted with someone telling him to make it back in one piece. It was Hannah, still trying to bring Andy's inner struggle with people out in the open. Andy did not reply to Hannah, he just immediately left. Mary faced Tristan, saying "I've lost you once; I don't want to lose you again."

"I'll make it back to you, I promise," Tristan replied before kissing her goodbye. The group started heading up the mountains in search for any acceptable resources they would need for the long journey to come. Mary was concerned for Tristan, and it bugged her seeing him go without her support. Mary dropped her smile from the fear that began grasping her knuckles.

The cabin at the end of the dirt road outside Mary's hometown seemed more desolate than ever before. The old paint chipping away around the house. A floorboard on the porch her father had meant to fix before he died remained broken. The smell of cigarettes clung to the furniture, as it had since Mary first left this place, which almost seemed like ages ago. Overall, a feeling of abandonment spread throughout the home. She could hardly believe her mother had been living in this same house, all on her own. It takes a stronger will than my own she thought, which was something her mother had always possessed. Mary stood looking out the window in the kitchen, gazing off at the road which led to the highway. Her mother sat at the table behind her, chain smoking, like she had been all afternoon. The smell of smoke and ash filled the room, and Mary coughed twice before beginning to break the news to her mother. "Mom," she began, "I uh, I need to let you know-"

"You aren't seriously considering leaving, are you?" Her mother interjected.

"Look I know. But I just can't stay here anymore. You know it has nothing to do with you, it's just... this place. It's haunting, and I get this weird feeling every time I come here. I just need to go."

"You aren't going back to him. Please tell me that's not what you're doing."

That stopped Mary. She turned back around to look out the window again. In the three days since she had come here, she hadn't stopped to think much about Tristan. She wondered where he was. Probably drunk somewhere, she thought to herself. But now, looking out beyond her mother's home, she realized she didn't know where he was, and maybe wouldn't, and that was a strange feeling to her. "No," was how she simply replied to her mother.

Her bags sat packed beside the door. She thought about where she might go. Probably best to go get a motel somewhere, think about where to go and what to do next. She understood why her mother wanted her to stay. Between her fear of her going back to Tristan and the strange news reports they'd been hearing about, she believed that it was too dangerous for Mary to be out there on her own. But she couldn't be in this house any longer. Ever since her father's passing, something about this place seemed wrong to her. Like the spirits of the dead flocked towards it. She turned and faced her mother. Standing in the middle of the hallway, tears began to form in her eyes. She remained composed however, and was able to speak two final words to her daughter before she left. "Be careful," she said. Mary nodded, turned and walked out the door. Her mother walked to watch from the kitchen window. She locked eyes with Mary one last time before she drove away.

One half hour had passed with the group wondering through the woods, finding almost nothing. They had their eyes peeled; watching for any trouble that could spring them. Clint began sweating. He wasn't use to hiking up hills, especially not mountains. Scott had to ask him a few times if he was alright, and it wasn't anything Clint couldn't handle. Multiple members of the group kept stepping on twigs, causing slight sound. Some of them feared that nearby walkers could hear, however none were still to be seen.

Scott went from behind Molly, whispering "Can I talk to you alone for a moment?" Molly was a little sceptic about what he was going to say to her, but she had her ears open. "So why the sudden leap?"

"What do you mean?" Molly asked.

"You've been silent all week long, and now you volunteer yourself to go in the woods to look for supplies?"

Molly grinded her teeth a little bit. "I just want to help contribute to the group," She replied.

"Is that all?" Scott asked.

"Yes that's all," she replied.

"Then why don't I believe you?" he sarcastically asked.

Molly stopped walking, staring up at Scott's eyes. Scott knew she was hiding something, but the question was what. Molly didn't respond, she just shook her head and kept walking forward, and away from Scott.

Tristan kept walking up the hill. He turned over and saw Andy walking by himself. He was curious as to why Andy wanted to come with the group, considering he isolates himself from everybody. Although Andy tries to keep to himself, Tristan knew they were on the same side. He walked over beside Andy.

"I appreciate you coming to help the group,"

Andy chuckled and replied "I have to find something to do; it can get real boring real fast during these days."

"I guess I never really thought about it like that," Tristan replied. "I never apologized to you." Andy looks at him, and didn't know what he was talking about. "For Chicago, I'm sorry I blamed you for what happened when we entered the city, it wasn't your fault."

Andy cracked a smile for once. It was rare that Andy received apologies from people. Usually because he doesn't do anything out of order, but in this case, he did not expect it coming. Andy turned and smiled to Tristan, replying "I appreciate that."

Scott lit another cigarette. Tristan turned and shook his head, calling out "Is there ever a point in your life where you aren't smoking Scott?"

Scott blew his smoke in the air and laughed. He replied "I only have a few left, so till I find more, you shouldn't worry for that much longer."

"Yeah because in this world you smoking are definitely the biggest concern on our part…" Molly sarcastically replied. Everyone laughed. Clint looked up in the sky, noticing it was getting darker. He looked what's around him, seeing that there were no structures to be seen. It was time to call it a day.

"It's going to get dark soon, we should head back," Clint replied.

"You sure?" Scott asked.

"Positive," he replied.

"Then alright, lets head back," Scott replied as he turned around.

"No, we have to keep going," Tristan replied. Scott turned and looks Tristan in the eye. He gasped and walked up to Tristan's face.

"Clint has a good point going for him Tristan, no use looking for something in the dark. If it's still there we can pick it up later, and with more daylight. If there's something out here it won't be going anywhere."

"Yeah well that's not my concern," Tristan replied.

"Then what is?" Andy asked.

"What if someone finds what we needs," Tristan replied.

Clint laughed and replied "You think there are other people just roaming about the mountains looking for supplies?"

"What makes you think there are others out here?" Molly asked.

Tristan looked down to his crow pin, not revealing it to anyone. He thought if it be best, maybe now would be a good time to inform everybody about what Connor told them. He debated whether he should tell them that there may be a group of people around who only have a desire to kill anybody they see. However, once Tristan thought all this, he realised it was moronic to tell them now. He replied "I don't, but you never know."

Scott walked up to Tristan and replied "Look if there are people out here then it would be a suicide run. Yes I mean we haven't spotted a walker yet, but that doesn't mean it's not dangerous. The dark alone could get you killed now days, so let's just head back to the cars and Mary ok? Tristan did not reply. Instead he just nodded his head with fear. "Alright everybody lets head back," Scott shouted. As the group began walking away, Tristan started clenching his fist.

The group waited for the return of their other half. For the past half hour they had done nothing but wait around, read any dull books they brought along, or just stare at the sky. That, and listen to Savian's sudden coughing. Mary laid back on the windshield of Tristan's "shitty" truck. She kept thinking about the first few days of the apocalypse, how she had to spend it alone after she left her mother. To this day, she still wonders if her mother might be alive. She thought it might be possible, considering she thought Tristan was as good as dead during the early days of the outbreak. Her thoughts were interrupted once she heard someone call out her name.

It was Hannah. Mary turned over, now sitting on her end listening to what Hannah has to say. "I have to ask, but how did you and Tristan meet?" Hannah asked.

"Oh, that's a story not worth sharing," Mary replied.

"Oh c'mon, was it at least romantic?" Amanda asked.

"Well let me ask you this; was your first meeting with Scott romantic Amanda?" Karin asked.

"Well…If you wrote what happened in a story then the readers might not find it romantic. However in my eyes, he was my knight in shining armor," Amanda replied.

"Aw, isn't that sweet," Hannah said.

"What about you Hannah how did you and Sean meet?" Mary asked. Regardless of what just happened to Sean, she thought maybe Hannah would be comfortable saying so, and she was.

"Let's just say he helped me rehabilitate," Hannah replied.

"Alright, I won't even ask what that means, but I'll take it," Karin laughed.

"How did you meet Clint Karin?" Amanda asked.

"Well it was a few years ago. We were both translator's for different business companies. He spoke Spanish and I spoke French," she replied.

"Wow, I didn't know you spoke French," Mary said.

"To be honest I think I may have forgotten a few things," she replied.

"None the less, I am impressed," Mary remarked. They both smiled at each other. Mary enjoyed Karin's enthusiasm from time to time. She thought that after Tristan almost broke Clint's nose the day they meet, there might be slight tension between them. However, the two were like rabbits in a hat. The girls heard Savian's coughing again and they all turned.

"You okay Savian?" Hannah asked being concerned.

"Yeah I'm fine," Savian replied.

"Really? You don't sound fine?" Phillip replied.

"You're sure you're okay man?" Wesley asked.

"Yeah I'm fine. I'm going to scavenge through some of these cars, see what I can find," Savian replied before walking off.

Wesley asked Phillip, "He sounds like he might be coming down with a really bad cold or something, you think?"

"Maybe, I don't think that's his biggest concern right now though," he replied.

"You have a point," Wesley replied.

Karin looked back at Mary and said "Anyways, Mary, you still haven't told us how you and Tristan met?"

"Well…when Tristan gets back he can tell you. I'm not very good at telling stories anyways," she replied.

"Ah c'mon we really want to know," Hannah replied.

"That's the deal, you need to wait for Tristan," Mary said. She laid back on the truck like she previously had been.

"So I wonder why Molly just got up a left with the guys." Karin asked.

"You think she'll be okay?" Amanda asked.

"She'll be fine," Mary replied.

"How do you know?" Amanda asked.

"I just do," she replied.

Mary sat alone in her motel room. To her it seemed like a jail cell. One big box, one window beside the doorway, and a washroom on the far side of the room. Of course it was a bit more pleasant than a jail cell. It had a bedroom and T.V., but seemed confining nonetheless.

Mary sat on the bed, thinking about what to do next. She knew she couldn't go back to Tristan. She couldn't afford to get sucked in and dragged down like that again. But now, since she had worked with him in the bar, she was unemployed. She wondered where she would work now. She had always loved animals. Maybe she would go work in a shelter. Or be a dog groomer. All she knew was that she wanted to do something that was lively and fun. She had had enough of death and sadness for one lifetime.

The sudden sounds of sirens outside broke her train of thought. She got up from her solitary loneliness to go to the window and was stopped once more. This time, by what sounded like a faint scratching at the door. She started towards it and looked through the eyepiece. She couldn't see anyone there, but the scratching persisted. Without thinking, Mary reached down to the handle and threw open the door.

On the other side looked like it could have once been a person, but wasn't any longer. His face and body looked like it had been rotting for weeks. His clothes were stained with blood, and he had what looked like a bite mark on his left shoulder. Mary screamed and fell back, and began crawling backwards towards the washroom. The monster, or whatever it was, followed her slowly but surely. Mary didn't know what to do, only thinking that if she could reach the washroom she could defend herself. Then all of a sudden, the end of a knife stuck through the monster's face. It was pulled out, and the creature fell sideways, appearing to be dead. In its place stood a woman, covered in dirt, holding the knife. Not even ten seconds had passed since Mary had opened the door. "Are you just going to sit there? Come on!" The woman shouted, and then she was out the door.

Mary took a moment to collect herself, and then, quickly grabbing her bag, she followed just as swiftly. She found her getting in a car down the parking lot. There was someone else in there too, another woman. "Hop in," the first one exclaimed. Mary didn't argue, she just wanted out of there. As they began to drive away, the first woman asked, "what's your name?"

"Mary," she replied.

"Nice to meet you Mary, I'm Molly. This here is my sister Nicole."

"Hi," Nicole said. Mary nodded in return. She looked out the rear window and simply watched as her hometown faded out of view

Tristan's group was near the highway, almost back with the rest of the group. They followed the same trail they went up before. Going down the mountains was easier this time, Clint didn't sweat as much. The clinging of both Tristan's and Scott's dog tags caught everyone's ears, and it began to irritate Molly a little bit. Everyone was just glad to be heading back to everyone else, Clint especially, and if you exempt Andy from that. The question finally erupted from Molly asking "We almost there?"

"It should just be a few more minutes," Scott replied.

Savian scavenged through a car trying to find anything valuable. He opened the glove compartment and found a pack of cigarettes. Out loud he said "Scott's going to love these unfortunately." He found a pair of sunglasses above him as well. Savian began coughing again. He put his hand in front of his throat as he continuously coughed. He took his head out from the car and laid his head on the door. He had his eyes shut, praying that the coughing would just vanish already. The last thing he did was sigh before he noticed the giant herd coming towards him.

The first reaction Savian had been paralysation. He did not move instantly. He probably thought for a moment that he was just imagining it. However, once he realised he was already enrolled into reality. He stepped back, and fell down on the ground. He began coughing again. He at first tried to scream out to everybody, but the coughing kept getting in the way of that. Once Savian's throat was cleared, he screamed out "Walkers!"

The rest of the group heard Savian and looked forward. They saw the huge herd of walkers coming towards them. There must be no less than one hundred, maybe even twice as much as that. The group panicked immediately. Most of them ran back to the cars to grab a firearm; however no amount of ammunition they had could even put a dent in the herd. Mary got off the truck and quickly asked Amanda "What do we do?"

"I don't know!" she replied.

Tristan and the group immerged from the forest in visual range from the road. They all looked down at the herd coming towards everybody, and their jaws all dropped. Scott whispered "Oh Christ." Both Tristan and Clint were the first two to start running as one called out to Mary while the other one called out to Karin. Scott loaded his shotgun and began running down the hill, hoping he could reach Amanda before the walkers could. Molly and Andy quickly followed down the hill, having their weapons ready for the attack.

Savian crawled as quickly as he could. A walker snuck up from behind him, closing in on lunch time. Phillip ran up in front of Savian, at first stepping back from the walker in front of him. The walker leaned towards Savian foot, almost taking a bite out of it. Phillip quickly ran to the side and kicked the walker down on the ground. Phillip began stomping his foot against the walkers head, saving Savian. He picked Savian up off the ground, yelling "C'mon we have to go!" They began running away from more approaching walkers.

Mary and Amanda snuck behind some cars trying to avoid being seen. They began looking out of the side window of a car, trying to see what was approaching them. One walker appeared from the side, attacking Mary. Mary was about to scream, but quickly Amanda stabbed the walker's head and covered Mary's mouth with her hand, not causing the slightest bit of noise. She looked Mary in the eye, and put one finger on her lip telling her to remain quiet. "This way," Amanda said. They walked in between two cars, with not much space in between. More walkers appeared in front of the girls, separating them. Mary ran to the left of the road avoiding any walkers coming towards her. Amanda stabbed one in the head and quickly rushed off in the different direction.

Phillip and Savian took a wrong turn on the road. Walkers covered their left, and as they quickly tried to avoid it they began covering their right. Walkers slowly began encircling them, causing them to panic. One walker sneaked up behind Phillip without him noticing. Within seconds the walker became decapitated with Hannah's machete. Hannah had appeared from nowhere, quick enough to save Phillip. "Just go, we'll catch up," said Phillip to Savian. Savian began running away from the crowd of walkers. Hannah jumped off the car and had her back against Phillip's.

Wesley hid behind the back of a truck, trying to restrain from being seen. He slowly peaked over a few times, and kept wondering if he should either move up and save himself, or go in and help someone else. He kept hitting his fist against the truck while pondering his decision, and also his confidence. He heard something growling from behind him. He turned around, seeing the walker approach him. He did nothing but scream from that point. His last thought was regret for not helping everyone else out, and that this was his punishment, right before he noticed a blade pierce through the walker's eye. Something from behind saved Wesley's life, but what was it? The walker fell to the ground, revealing it was Amanda who saved Wesley. Wesley sat there, having a hard time trying to catch his breath. Amanda looked Wesley in the eye and asked "You with us?" Wesley nodded. Amanda reached out her arm, picking Wesley off the ground. The two began running.

Tristan slide over a car while Clint ran past it. Tristan stabbed a walker in the head, trying to find a sight of Mary, however it could not be found. Clint fired two rounds of his shotgun, taking down only one walker in the process as he tried to find Karin. Andy ran through the walkers, not having a distinct person to save, but to just take down as many as possible. Scott and Molly stayed outside the road, both inspecting what was going on. Scott turned over and noticed Savian running from a few. He said "Molly, get Savian, I'm going for Amanda," and Molly listened. Scott took out his M-100 and began shooting as many rounds as he could.

Tristan took out his revolver. He managed to shoot two walkers in the head. He was looking around for Mary as best as he could, but he could not see her as hard as he tried. He turned around. He spread his eyes, and he could see Mary from the distance running. He began running towards her, but it was stopped immediately with three walkers blocking his path. He could not reach Mary from there. He kept whispering "shit," to himself.

Clint fired a round from his shotgun, grabbing the attention of every walker close to him. He kept screaming out for Karin, but it was not helping. In fact, it was just making it worse. Not also was Clint gathering the attention of everyone from the group, but also every single walker on the road. He continuously kept screaming out for Karin, but still she was nowhere to be found. Once Clint finally stopped and noticed what was around him, he realized he was surrounded.

Clint fired another round of his shotgun, taking out two walkers instantaneously. They were closing in fast, and Clint was starting to panic. He kept shouting the words "Come on you freaks! Is that all you've got!" however, he knew the freaks were the ones getting him. He still kept firing his shotgun, coming pretty close no ammo at that point. They grew closer and closer to him, and he was running out of options.

Scott fired one round, killing a walker, right before he noticed the pickle Clint was in. He screamed out "Clint!" before he began running towards him. Walkers blocked him off very quickly. He fired his shotgun again, but it was no use. There was no way Scott could reach Clint at that point. He turned around and aggravated said "Shit!" before he started running. All he could do was prey for Clint's safety at that point, he needed to find Amanda.

Clint fired the last round of his shotgun, and still it was no help. The walkers extended their arms reaching for their lunch, and Clint closed his eyes for the fear. He assumed then and there that it was the end, and he felt sorry he couldn't save Karin one last time. He heard the sound of something piercing a walkers head. He opened his eyes, and saw a boomerang within the walker`s skull. Andy jumped off the car, kicking one walker down to the ground. He took out his boomerang from the deceased walker, then staring at Clint. He asked "you with us brother?" It took a moment for Clint to check back into reality. Once he observed what was around him, he realised he still needed to find Karin. He stood up, facing his back towards Andy's. The two were easily becoming surrounded, but they were both prepared.

Savian kept running. He stopped for a moment to catch his breath. However, it was hard from all the coughing Savian was still exerting. He began sweating from the extreme exhaustion caused from his coughing, running, and fear from the approaching walkers. He peaked his head over, noticing he put himself a fair distance between him and the herd. He started looking to the ground, saying "God help me," to himself. He shut his eyes for a moment, preying something was coming to save him.

A walker appeared from the side of the car. It had no hesitation and went directly at Savian. Once Savian heard the moan of the walker, he opened his eyes. He looked over, seeing the beast hunting him down, and it caused him to scream. Molly appeared from behind the walker. Quickly, but also silently, she stabbed the walker behind the head. The walker fell, but Molly grabbed him from hitting the ground. She looked over, noticing the heard wasn't far off anymore between the two of them. She whispered the words "Don't move," to Savian.

She dragged the walker's body over to Savian. He replied with "What are you doing Molly?" She looked over again, noticing the walkers were almost in range to notice them. She didn't have time to explain to Savian what she was doing, so she just pushed him to the ground. He fell, and coughed and asked "What the hell is your problem?" She threw the deceased walker over Savian's body, and she replied, "I told you not to move."

Once the body had completely covered Savian's body, she quickly rolled over under a car, trying to be concealed. Savian at first thought Molly went a little crazy, but now he understand what she was doing. The walker's won't be able to smell out Savian with the body on top of him, let alone see him. Walkers finally started passing Savian and Molly. She just waited and waited until it was clear for them. She kept preying that they won't notice Savian, and so far it seemed like it was working. It took about a minute or so for all the walkers pass by, but finally it was clear enough for them to get up and move. Savian immediately pushed the body off him, and coughing from disgust after. Molly emerged from the bottom of the car. She lifted Savian off the ground, and said "Let's go."

Tristan shot one more round from his revolver, and his aim was still as good as it could be. He noticed the walkers weren't close enough to him to impose a threat, however they were still blocking his way to Mary. Fact is, Tristan couldn't even see Mary anymore. He tried, but he just couldn't. He slammed his hand on the truck from his anger. He turned around and began running, until he bumped into a familiar face. It was Karin.

"What do we do, where's Clint?" she asked from a great sense of panic and fear.

Tristan replied "Stay calm, we'll find him, but we need to get out of here. Follow me." He began guiding Karin through the highway and away from the walkers, if it even seemed possible now.

Mary kept running. She stopped and though she was safe. However, three walkers appeared in front of her. She kept saying "Oh god," to herself. She ran up and kicked the first walker down. She took out her knife and pierced the other one in the head. The walker that fell was on his feet again. She pierced her blade through his skull, however it wasn't coming out. The walker fell on Mary, causing her to fall to the ground. The third walker was approaching, and still she couldn't get the knife out of the walker's head. She gave up finally, and began backing away from the walker. That was until a car stopped her from doing so. The walker was getting closer and closer, and she could only ask herself, who was going to save her now?

Mary awoke with a start. After quickly glancing around her surroundings and seeing which car she was in, she remembered the events of the previous night. "Morning," Molly called from the driver's side. Mary groaned. She had been dreaming about Tristan, and of the times before everything in their relationship turned sound. The good times. The ones where everything was done out of love. Before everything in the world seemed to be going wrong. Now, everything seemed like it was only going to get worse. She also thought about her mother, alone in that old house. She wished she could get them both and bring them with her, but that opportunity was gone now.

"So Molly," Mary began. "What you said last night? About the dead people coming back. That's all true?"

"You saw it yourself. It's all as real as you and me. No one knows how it started. Only that if you get bit, you die. And then you come back and, eat whatever you can."

"Jesus..."

They kept driving for an hour or two, mostly keeping silent throughout. Eventually they came across an abandoned town. Possible one of the smallest ones in Illinois. Molly pulled up to a convenience store. "We need to stock up on food, water, and whatever else could come in handy. So just go in, he out. Let's not linger around here too long." She looked at Mary. "You up for this?" She asked. Mary nodded. "Well alright then, take this." She handed her a small knife, then they were out of the car.

The store smelled of dead rats to Mary, who threw up upon entry. Nicole groaned a little bit, but didn't complain. Molly simply showed an expression of discomfort and kept walking. They gathered up what they could carry. The girls were in there for maybe a grand total of five minutes, but once they exited they saw a sight that Mary could not begin to believe.

What looked like twenty walkers had seemingly come out of nowhere, and flocked towards the girl's vehicle. Nicole gasped, and one of the creatures heard her. All of a sudden, the entire herd of walkers began to descend upon the three girls.

Molly began barking orders. Mary could barely hear her. She just couldn't believe how many there were. She was sure this was going to be it. For the first time in her life she prayed to God that if she made it to heaven, that she would see Tristan there again.

Then just as the girls thought they were about to face death, out of nowhere a boomerang came and impaled the first walker in the head. From behind one of the buildings, a swiftly moving Asian man came running straight towards the herd. Pulling a machete from off his back, he began to cut the zombies down one by one. "Help him," Molly said. Then Mary and the two others ran at the herd, and began to assist the man in dwindling its numbers. Within about a minute, the herd was reduced to nothing.

The girls were out of breath. Molly turned around to say thank you and saw that the man had begun walking away. "Hey wait up!" She called.

The Asian man had already started walking once the fighting had ceased. He turned once Molly called to him. "What?" He asked.

"Take us with you. Or come with us. We have room, but not enough food to survive for more than a few days. Please we need your help."

"I travel alone."

"Please," Mary's voice pierced the air. "We won't survive out here. Please come with us."

They stood looking at each other for a moment. Mary wondered if he would simply turn away. Eventually he sighed and asked, "is that your car?"

Mary looked back and said, "yes."

"Well then let's go."

"Wait, we never got your name." The stranger kept walking. Once he reached the door he looked back, and with little to no emotion replied, "Andy." Mary was thankful that he was coming with them. But once again found herself wishing Tristan and her mother were there with her.

The walker looked Mary dead in the eye. She sat there, now thinking her time has come. From the sound of a gunshot, the walkers brain turned to mush. It fell to the ground in front of Mary, and from relief wondered who fired the shot. She was wondering if it was Tristan. She looked up, and at first could not see the person's face properly from the sunlight. Once it became clear to her, she realised who it was. It was Scott.

"You alright?" she asked.

She stood up and replied "Yeah I'm fine, but where's Tristan?"

"I don't know," he replied. "We can't worry about that right now, we need to get out of here, so stay close."

Scott crouched. Mary was behind Scott's back and she did the same as he did. He turned a corner seeing several walkers in front of him. He took out his bowie knife. He ran up and stabbed one behind the head. He kicked one's knee, causing him to fall flat on his stomach when it hit the ground. He stomped his head right on it, silencing it immediately. Another walker noticed him. He swung his shotgun, taking him out faster than a turkey on thanksgiving day. He fired a round from his shotgun, killing two more walkers. He turned around and looked at Mary.

Mary just stood there, absolutely stunned. She forgot how dangerous Scott could be. Scott rubbed his face, and asked "You just gonna stand there?"

She replied "No sir."

"Good, then let's get the hell out of here," he replied.

Andy and Clint stood there, having several dead bodies surrounding them. They were beginning to tire out, they couldn't handle much more of what was happening. Clint turned his head and noticed Wesley and Amanda running towards them. He called them out, and they began running towards them. Once the four of them were together, they had no hesitation to run. They ran out of the highway, but still several walkers were following them. Clint fired his last round from his handgun. He looked out one more time to see if he could find Karin, but immediately Andy grabbed his arm and said "We need to go."

"I'm not leaving without Karin," he replied.

"You might not have a choice," Wesley said.

"We can't worry about her right now, we need to go," Amanda said.

Clint shouted "Dammit," and began running with the rest of the group into the woods, having several walkers still following them.

Molly and Savian emerged on the other side of the road. She were both tired, but still they kept pushing forward. Both Scott and Mary also came out of the road and noticed Molly and Savian were close to them. They both ran up to the two of them.

"What about the others?" Molly asked.

Scott looked out, barely being able to see anybody. He thought it best to lead the group away from the herd for now, but it also made him sick to his stomach that he was abandoning Amanda and Tristan. He replied "We gotta go." And they ran into the forest.

Tristan and Karin were silently walker through the road. They looked over, seeing Phillip and Hannah running from the herd. Tristan told Karin to follow him. They both ran towards Phillip and Hannah. Hannah swung her machete, decapitating another walker. She still wasn't use to the machete's weight. Her arms were getting tired. Tristan appeared in front of the two. He fired the last round in his revolver. "C'mon, into the forest," he screamed.

The four now ran out of the highway, heading towards the forest. Karin slowed down a little bit to catch her breath. Tristan screamed at her to catch up, but she couldn't. She opened her eyes and noticed a few walkers close to her. She ran in another direction apart from Tristan Hannah and Phillip. Tristan screamed "No!" and was about to run towards her. Phillip quickly grabbed Tristan and said "We'll be fine, but we need to leave now." Tristan was pissed. However he knew Phillip was right, he turned around, and the group began heading away, with Karin in another direction.

The highway was completely covered with walkers now. The group had now been split, having almost none of their resources to help them either. Walkers had completely covered this area now. All the talk about not seeing any walkers around here, well that theory was now disproven. The day was almost over as well, nightfall had befallen.

Like Mary had predicted the food they had gathered only lasted them a few days. And in the days since they had no luck in finding more. Even Andy hadn't seemed to be much help lately, except on those rare occasions when one or more walkers were encountered. Having Andy with them eased some of Mary's doubts of surviving, but then she remembered the scale of this thing, and that quelled those thoughts. The car was running low on gas, and this just added to the list of worries. Along with the hunger and threat of death, this just became part of the day for Mary.

Then all of a sudden a scream came from outside. "Oh shit!" Molly yelled. Mary looked ahead, and up the road, at the edge of the highway, there was an Asian man fighting a walker on top of him. Mary knew where this would end up if they did not help him, and told Molly so. However, Andy interjected. "You only risk yourself and your group," he stated. "Do not help that man."

"Are you insane?" Mary screamed at him. "Molly pull over, let me help him."

"Damn it" Molly said. She pulled the car over as Andy sighed. Mary got out, ran towards the walker and pulled it off the man. Then she stabbed it in the head, ending its life.

The man looked shocked. Mary knew that's what happened when your life was threatened. At a closer look she could see how defenseless this man looked. Tall and thin, he carried a pack on his shoulders, but that seemed like all there was. Mary couldn't understand how he survived this long. "What's your name?" She asked him.

"Phillip," he replied, still on his back.

"You going to try anything Phillip?"

"No, god no. Do I look like I will be?"

"Not really. What's in the bag?"

Phillip finally sat up. "Food," was all he said.

Mary looked back at the car. "Wanna come with?"

Phillip nodded. Mary helped him up, and they began walking towards the car. She was sure that if Phillip had food, Molly and the others wouldn't mind if he tagged along. Phillip sat in the middle of the backseat, with Mary and Andy on either side. Mary sat looking out the window as they continued to drive down the highway, hoping that soon, things would begin to start looking up.

It was nighttime now, and Mary and the rest had been running for about ten minutes. Scott looked behind him, noticing no walkers were chasing them anymore. He told the group to stop, and stop they did. They all were gasping for their breathe. Savian began coughing again.

Scott looked at Savian with his concern, and said "Jesus man, what with all the coughing lately?"

He stopped or a moment, and turned around. He replied "It's fine, don't worry," as he looked at all the blood covering his hand. He wiped it on his jeans, and turned back to the group and smiled, pretending everything was fine.

"What do we do now?" Mary asked.

"It's dark now, we need to find shelter," Scott replied.

"What about the others?" Molly asked.

"We'll find them don't worry, but for now we need to worry about ourselves," he replied.

Mary walked up to Scott and whispered "What about Tristan and Amanda?"

"They'll be fine. I have no doubt in my mind that everyone will be fine." Mary stood there with worry. Throughout the early days of the apocalypse she loathed it when Tristan wasn't by her side, and now he's gone again, it made her sick.

"Alright everyone, let's find somewhere to set up camp," Scott shouted. The group began walking the opposite direction from the highway again. It was a peaceful forest it seemed at the time. All that the group could hear was the wind blowing through the trees. And the mountains had really caught everyone's eye. Molly particularly thought they were beautiful. She had never been to a place like this before. Molly and her sister planned to come to a place like this one day, but that quickly changed. All Mary could keep thinking about was if Tristan was ok or not.

Tristan Hannah and Phillip kept running. They noticed only two walkers were behind them. Tristan stopped and shot one in between the eyes. Molly pierced the walkers chest with her machete, although the walker was still alive. Phillip took out his knife and stabbed him in the head shortly after.

They were all exhausted from the attack, and who could blame them. Phillip and Hannah were at their knees trying to catch their breath. Hannah looked over to Tristan asking "What now?"

Tristan reloaded his revolver. It was now locked and loaded. He looked around his surrounding, at first not being able to notice anything. It was hard to make out anything during this time of day. All he could see was the Trees, and the mountains over them, barely. He looked behind them, and noticed something that could finally lead him in the groups favour. It was a cave, big enough to hold at least ten people, more than enough room for the group to spend the night.

He pointed at that cave and replied "We'll camp out there for the night, no use wandering around here in the dark, it'll just get us killed."

Phillip looked at the cave, and how dark it must be. He asked "You sure, I mean is that really the safest place to be right now?"

"You wanna camp out here with the walkers, be my guest," he replied.

Phillip was annoyed with Tristan's response, but he knew he was right. The three walked towards the cave, about to set up camp for the night. Tristan kept thinking about Mary, wondering if she was safe. He only saw her briefly during the attack, so he had no idea who she was with, or if she even was with anybody. The thought of Karin also popped in his head. She was out there alone right now, and who knows if she has what it takes to survive.

He laid down inside the cave. His eyes were beginning to get heavy. As he shut his eyes, the image of Murray awoke. He opened his eyes again and began rubbing them. Tristan was afraid to go to sleep tonight, after all the past week all it gave him were nightmares. He didn't bother trying right now, instead he began keeping watch over Phillip and Hannah outside the cave, in case any walkers came by.

Clint stabbed another walker in the eye as he screamed. It fell to the ground, only make the rest of the herd visible to Clint and the group. He, along with everyone else, continued to run away. Dozens of walkers kept following the group, and it felt like the more they killed, the more kept coming out of the forest. Clint was sweating greatly, but he had to keep pushing forward. All he could set his mind on was Karin.

Amanda grabbed Clint's arm, screaming "C'mon let's go."

As they ran, Clint screamed "Where are we supposed to go!?" The group continued running from the herd. They all had their backs turned to notice how close they all were. It was hard to make out the forest during nighttime, however the walkers were still clearly visible to everyone's eye. Amanda took out her pistol, but right before she could fire, she slipped, and fell down a hill. The rest of the group would follow her, not intentially of course.

Everyone from the group was wondering what happened. Wesley looked up, noticing the landslide that they all had fallen from. He rubbed his eyes and looked at everyone else. They were all trying to pick themselves up from what just happened. Sure it beats a walker bite, but it wasn't exactly the best massage they've received in their lives.

They all stood up, looking up at the landslide. Amanda started laughing, and said "At least were safe." Clint smiled from relief. However, that smile quickly vanished as he heard the moans from behind him. The group turned around, notice the seeping death that lurks in front of them.

Dozens of walkers were on the ground in front of them. They were on a slanted hill, having the walkers not being able to reach them. The noise they caused from the landslide had pulled ever single walker towards them. They couldn't reach, however they quickly surrounded the hill. If anyone jumped down, they would become food within a matter of seconds. They were all backing away as far as they could, wondering how the hell they were suppose to get out of this one.

A walker appeared on the side of the hill, heading towards Andy. Within seconds, he stabbed it in the eye with his boomerang. He took it out, and began noticing the clear grass land that ennvoked the area. He thought if somehow they could reach the end of there, then they would be safe.

Wesley screamed "What the hell do we do!"

Andy replied, "Don't panic, see the end of the field over there? If we jump down and run we might be able to make it."

"That's a suicide run!" Clint screamed.

"You got any better ideas?" Andy sarcastically asked. Clint did not, so he just stood there with panic. "Alright everyone ready?" and everyone nodded. "Alright, jump!"

Everyone jumped down, everyone but Clint. He still stood up on the hill. Amanda stood up, seeing walkers covering her. She took out her knife and quickly stabbed one in the head. She heard another walker behind her. She quickly took out the knife from the walker's head and swung it behind her. She didn't even turn around to see, however she pierced her knife right in the walker's left eye. She kicked another walker down, and began running.

Andy took out his boomerang, and used the full purpose of it. He swung it several times, killing five walkers in the process. He kicked a walker down and crushed his skull against his boot. He throw his boomerang, accurately killing another walker. He ran, took out the boomerang again, and began running towards the forest again.

Wesley took out his pistol. His aim wasn't the best, however tonight he seemed to use it correctly. He shot several in the head. He turned around, and noticed Clint was still just standing there. He called out "Clint!" and continued firing. He fired, and put down two more walkers. He called out "Clint!" again, but still he would not reply. Wesley gave up and began running towards Andy and Amanda.

Clint finally jumped down, and began running away from the walkers towards the rest of the group. The group stopped, waiting for Clint to catch up. Along the way, Clint tripped, and fell down. He was dizzy for a moment. For some reason, Karin popped in his head again, and at that moment he was infuriated. He stood up again, but this time he didn't run. He took out his shotgun and began to scream. The group kept screaming at him "Clint, we need to go!" but he just wouldn't listen. He kept firing rounds from his shotgun, and he would do it while screaming at the top of his lungs. Andy began running towards Clint. Clint fired three more times. He killed more walkers than anyone else combined did from there. Andy grabbed Clint and started dragging him.

"Let go of me!" Clint screamed. Andy did not let go. They were both finally caught up to the rest of the group. Once Clint finally calmed down a little, he was free to move on his own. The group began running again. There were still a several dozen walkers coming towards them. They kept going, right until they fell again.

They fell, but this time not from a landslide. It was a hole in the ground. Amanda looked up, and noticed that something was covering up the hole, it was like a cage of some sort. Everyone else stood up, wondering what the hell this thing was. They began hearing gun shots fire from above them, and they kept asking themselves who could possible be doing this.

Above them, a man appeared. He was a blonde man wearing a purple hoodie and black jeans. The man looked down at Amanda, and said out loud "Well what do we have here?"

Mary and the group had set up camp. It wasn't much, actually all it was is a camp fire and the four of them just sitting there, well everyone besides Scott. He volunteered to keep watch over the night. He was deep in thought, wondering where Amanda might be. Mary was gazing down at the campfire, only wondering why god is punishing her like this.

"God damn it, you've got to be kidding me," Molly said as the car began to stall. She pulled over to the side of the road and tried starting it again. Nothing. "Shit!" She said loudly, and kept trying. Mary looked around, finding it hard to believe that the car had broken down in the middle of nowhere. She looked to her right and out the window, she saw a rocky quarry which could be around a lake. "There could be a bit of shelter over there, why don't we go check it out?"

Molly looked over. "All right lets go. Everyone grab your things."

Everyone got out and shuffled slowly towards the area. It had been a rough couple of weeks. Phillip's food had run out a few days ago, and the group had done nothing but travel. Not stopping for much except to sleep and when Nicole felt carsick. Mary found most nights she would silently cry herself to sleep, wishing for things from her old life back. She was almost sure that Tristan and her mother were dead, and the thought made her sick. Thinking about him now, and wishing she had him to keep her warm was unbearable, but her thoughts were interrupted by a roar exclaiming, "Stop where you are!"

Then Mary saw the man running towards them. "Don't move," he yelled. She saw the gun he was pointing at them.

"Please we aren't here to harm you," Molly said. "Dont hurt us," Nicole pleaded.

"Shut up all of you," he demanded. Mary could see he wasn't messing around and kept silent. The man kept his gun pointed at the group. Suddenly another voice further down spoke, "What's going on Clint?" The speaker emerged, and Mary's eyes went wide.

"Scott?!" She shouted and ran towards him.

"Mary?" Scott called out, and ran to meet her. She hugged him, pleased to see a friendly face. "It's good to see you," he said. "But where's Tristan?" Mary stopped smiling. She remembered the past few weeks, and the weeks before all this. "Oh god," she said and began to cry. Scott held her, not knowing what else to do. The others silently kept their heads down. And Mary continued to weep.

Mary woke up the next morning, noticing everyone else was already up doing something. She noticed Molly was organizing the guns they all had. She rubbed her eyes and asked "Where's Scott and Savian?"

Molly pointed behind Mary, replying "Savian's over there. Scott went down by the river not too far from here."

"I didn't know there was a river nearby," Mary replied.

"yeah, aren't we so damn lucky huh?" Molly said. Mary could tell Molly was not in a good mood, so she just left her.

She walked down to the river, noticing Scott was shirtless, and seeing the tattoo down below his neck. He was cleaning his white shirt down by the river. Who could blame him, with all the blood he had gotten on him. Mary walked down to where Scott was, and she said "Hey, mind some company?"

Scott turned and replied "Course not, I'm just thinking anyways," as he put on his blue plaid shirt and jacket. Mary laughed and began to smile, right before she thought about Tristan

"Mary?" Scott said. She looked up to him. "I promise you, Tristan will be okay, he survived the first month of the apocalypse by himself. He'll be okay."

Mary replied, "I know," even though she really didn't. "I can't believe this all happened."

"Well, were out of the frying pan now, let's just hope were not into the fire quite yet," he replied.

The group continued walking through the forest for the next hour, and they saw no threat emerge. Molly asked, "So how are we going to find everyone?"

Scott replied, "I haven't figured that out yet."

Savian replied "We could head back to the road, and…" before he started coughing again. Scott squinted his eyes, still wondering why Savian was coughing so much lately. He walked over to Mary, and asked "Do you know what's wrong with him? I mean did he always cough this much?"

"I've seen him cough a few times, but not like this," she replied.

"Well, just keep an eye on him," he replied. The group continued walking through the forest, and kept admiring the mountains above them. They were also pretty high above normal ground now to. Any higher and they might be able to see the highway if it wasn't for all the trees around. They kept hearing the birds chirping, and Mary was really enjoying hearing these sounds again.

"It's so peaceful out hear, don't you think?" Mary asked.

"Yeah, it's great," Molly once again sarcastically said. Mary ignored Molly's tone.

"Its things like this that make me think that this world is still a nice place to live after all," she said. Scott smiled.

The group looked ahead, and noticed a cabin, maybe fifty feet away. Savian said "You think anybody is in there?"

"Were going to find out," Scott replied. The group began walking toward the cabin. They started to hear something moaning, and they immediately had their guard on. Scott pointed his shotgun, but still could not see anything.

Out from a tree, they noticed something was crawling. It was a walker, or at least half of one. It was wearing what appeared to be a farmer's outfit, giving Scott and Mary the idea that the cabin belonged to him. Everyone but Scott covered their mouths from disgust. All they kept noticing were the intestines hanging out from the body.

Scott walked towards the half walker crawling towards him. He covered his nose from the smell. He looked into the walkers eyes for a moment. He wondered what kind of man this thing use to be. He keeps forgetting that every walker he puts down was escentially a person from the start, and it made him sick. He took out his pistol and pointed it at the walkers face. He said "I'm sorry," before silencing it.

From behind the group, about a dozen walkers or so came out of the forest. Scott turned around and noticed them. He screamed "Get to the cabin!" The group ran towards the cabin, hoping it might be secure enough for the walkers not to get them.

Scott opened the door. Everyone ran inside, and began pushing their bodies against the door. The walkers were pushing against the doors as well. They were trying with all their might to not let the walkers enter, but it was becoming a great amount of difficulty. Mary began thinking about Tristan again, and how this might be the last time she will do so.

Weeks had passed since Mary had arrived with Scott's group. She was grateful to have found him. In this world, someone should knew from before was a welcome change of pace for her. She had gotten to know most of the people in the group by now. Clint had apologized to her for the gun when they first met. She said she understood. Savian was an interesting man, as well as Wesley. Both seemed to keep to their own consuel. Amanda was so pleasant and kind to be around. Mary had heard stories about her from Scott all those nights her, Tristan and Scott spent together in the bar.

Thinking about Tristan still pained her. She wanted desperately to believe that he wasn't dead. Anyone but him. She felt so horrible for leaving him like she did, and would take it back any day. But she knew she couldn't do that. The group had a fairly good setup. They made camp by a lake so there was no shortage of fish to catch. Plus with Andy going on runs all the time, things were beginning to seem like they were finally going to be okay. After walking around the site, Mary found Scott looking out at the lake. She came up behind him, "Want some company?"

He turned around, surprised. "Oh hey Mary," he said. "Sure. Just thinking."

"I never thanked you. For taking us in. I- we really appreciate it. So thank you."

"You know you don't have to thank me. I couldn't leave you out there. Group or no." Mary nodded, and stared out silently at the lake. "Mary?" Scott said. "What happened to Tristan?"

It took her a little before she responded. "I left him. I just couldn't be there anymore. I wanted to be away from him. Now I want nothing more than for him to be here." "I'm sorry," was all Scott could think to say.

Mary nodded. Not knowing how else to continue this conversation. She kept looking out at the lake, thinking of all the things that could have been different, and above all else, thinking about Tristan, and if he was alive, if he was thinking about her as well.

They were all struggling at that moment. Scott while pushing against the door still, heard a creek from behind. "Stay close," Scott said to Mary. He picked up his shotgun and turned around. He was pointing it at a man. He was wearing blue jeans and a brownish shirt, and was holding no weapon. He had long black hair and looked to be from a Spanish background. The only words Scott could shout at this man were "Who the fuck are you?"

Tristan woke up, noticing Hannah and Phillip were still asleep. He got up quietly, not to wake either of them up. He could hear his dog tags cling together, and that's one thing he'll never like about them, that and the memories they produce.

He began walking out of the cave, but was stopped by Phillip's question, "Where are you going?"

"Just getting some air, I'll be back shortly," he replied.

Tristan walked out of the cave, first noticing the beautiful mountains. The sunlight blinded him for a second, but only for a second. He began to admire the trees, and especially the mountains. Wherever the rest of the group is, he was hoping that they are all seeing what he's seeing right now, especially Mary. He took out his picture of Mary and began looking at it, smiling. He was sad that she wasn't with him again, but for some reason he knew she was okay. If he could find her, and he knew he would, he would make sure she would never be in danger again. Tristan stopped looking at the picture to notice what was walking towards him, and it dropped his jaw.

It was Murray, or what seemed to be a version of Murray. He had turned. Tristan began to sweat, he didn't understand why he was seeing this. He looked again at him, seeing the gunshot that he left him. A second later, things only getting worse. Both Sean and Nicole came out of the trees. All three of them were walking towards Tristan. He started rubbing his eyes, saying "no, god please no," to himself. He took out the pin from his pocket and began looking at his. The words "They will kill you all," began echoing in his head again.


	8. Sirens

The Walking Dead Apocalypse

As the lights dazed the dancers and listening eyes, Savian stood up on the stage staring into the crowd. Small, but electric no less. Always seemed like the smaller crowds knew how to party harder. Savian grasped his microphone, preparing to sing the final portion of his song before he could go home. As he caught a glimpse of the red lights shining above the dance floor, he felt a sudden appreciation for the song, "Sirens" and how it taught him that even the greatest feelings and people in life can be taken away at a moment's notice. But that moment passed when he finished the song. He thanked the crowd, and then walked off stage.

Back stage was a tight, narrow hallway, and definitely less comforting than on stage. Every time he came back here, Savian felt he had entered a broom closet. He proceeded down the hall to his boss's office. The owner of the club, Stone McCready. Before entering the office Savian grumbled to himself, "Wonder how he's gonna cheat me today." He had never been particularly fond of Stone.

When he opened the door he immediately remembered why. The office smelled off old sandwiches and cigarettes, with a hint of something else perhaps, but Savian knew better than to ask questions about that. "Hey boss," he said. "Just coming in to pick up my pay," coughing at the end of the sentence.

"Right," Stone replied sliding an envelope across the desk, which Savian picked up. "Fifty in there."

Savian stopped. "Fifty? What the hell? There were tons more people than last night, why is my cut so small?"

"Savian you know I have a business to run. That takes money; I can't go giving you everything I have." Savian studied his boss's face and saw the hint of a smirk and realized he was just bullshitting him. However, this being the only job he could get to somewhat support himself, he had to restrain himself.

Savian exited the building through the back exit. As he left he stopped in the alley and breathed in the brisk Burbank air, then began coughing violently. This had been happening the past few days and he had scheduled a doctor's appointment tomorrow to talk about the sudden coughing fits and unusual pains in his body. As he walked home, he looked forward to getting that over with to figure out what was going on with him.

Savian desperately tried to get a glimpse of the man standing before Scott; however the matter became difficult when there are about a dozen walkers playing little pig little pig let me in. The three of them, Mary Molly and Savian, all felt like they were part of a children's book now. It was getting more difficult by the second to push against the door with the walker's coming. Molly was biting down the end of her teeth so hard it was leading to pure exhaustion. Mary as well was beginning to feel fatigue in her muscles. And on top of that, there erupted another potential problem, and it was the man with no name.

"I'm not going to ask you again buddy, who are you?" Scott shouted as he pointed his M-100 at his face. The stranger did not answer. He stood there without a response to Scott. All he kept noticing were the three individuals pushing all their strength against the door, before noticing that Scott had just loaded his weapon.

He quickly raised his arm, revealing nothing in his hands, in reply with "Woah hey man, you don't need to shoot me."

"Then tell me your name friend," Scott replied with great aggression. Scott heard a crack from behind him. He turned around noticing the walkers were about to enter.

"Scott we can't hold it that much longer," Molly replied, sounding like she just ran a marathon.

Scott turned back around to the man again. He said "I can get you guys out of here safely, but you're going to have to trust me okay?" Scott didn't reply. He just stood there pondering the possibilities of everything going wrong once he places everyone's and is own life in this mysterious man's hands, especially since he doesn't even know his name.

Scott shouted, "Guys back away from the door!" Everyone backed away from the door. It only took a fraction of a second for walkers to start pooling in. Scott fired one shot, putting down one walker, and then screaming "Get us the hell out of her!" to the stranger.

"Everyone follow me," the man said. The man took lead into the kitchen, having the four walker mercenaries follow close behind. He began running up the stairs as walkers kept coming from behind. Molly grabbed a knife quickly from the kitchen, managing to take out one walker, and then continue running after. The group was on the second floor now. The walkers began slowing down; stairs were not on their strong sides.

The man waited for everybody to get inside the master bedroom before he shut the door. He turned around, heading towards the doors that had a balcony outside it. The entire group was out on the balcony, not having a walker to see out on the field before them. Behind them they could hear the door cracking. The walkers were extra excited about their lunch today. Matias jumped off the balcony and onto the ground. He screamed "Jump!" to the group. The group was hesitant, but after hearing the door brake down behind them, they all jumped.

They all landed on the ground safely, all gasping for breath. They all looked up above them, noticing the walkers looking down on like, kind of like the lights they spotted in Chicago the second day when meeting Connor. Scott turned and look the man in the eye again, and asked "You gonna tell me your name now?"

"Matias Franco," he replied.

"Scott McGregor," he said as he began shaking his hand, while Savian began to cough.

Sirens

Scott and the group, along with this new individual, Matias, had been walking through the forest for a good half hour before really asking him any serious questions. Scott himself was too busy worrying about Amanda to give a damn at the time. They didn't run into any walkers either, surprising enough. With everything that's been going it's hard to imagine a moment where there were teeth trying to hunt you down.

Molly, being the first one to finally ask, "So Matias, what were you doing in that cabin alone?"

"I was gathering supplies to take back to camp," he replied.

"Camp? You live around here?" Mary asked.

"Something likes that yeah," he replied.

"How the hell have you managed to live by yourself all this time?" Scott asked.

"I never said I was alone," he replied.

"Really? How many of you are there?" Scott asked.

"Including me, there's six. What about you? Is it just you four?" Matias asked.

"No, there were a dozen of us," Mary replied.

"A dozen? What happened to the rest of them?" he asked.

"Yesterday on some highway a herd came through, we all got split up. They could be anywhere around this area," Scott replied.

"How about I take you back to my camp and then we can scout the area for your friends," Matias offered.

Scott nodded his head and replied "that would be big help thanks."

Savian tapped Scott on the shoulder and asked "May I speak with you privately for a second?" and Scott nodded. They both walked along the side of some trees. "Are you insane?" Savian asked.

"Pardon?" Scott replied.

"We need to find everybody, and instead were going to follow a complete stranger back to camp?"

"Yeah, basically," Scott replied.

For a second Savian didn't respond. He laughed a little bit and responded, "I really question your leadership abilities sometimes Scott, but not this time," before he began walking away.

Scott aggressively grabbed Savian's shoulder, stopping him. "You might question why I do the things that I do, but it's always gotten us to safety. Yeah this guy might be a complete stranger, but if he says who he says he is, then we've got a better chance going with him then on our own. We don't know a damn thing about these mountains. We'd probably run into another herd of walkers than finding Tristan and the others. With this guy we have a better chance of finding everyone, and if you don't want to follow, then we'll just find you later once we arrive." Scott began walking away, following Matias with the rest of the group. Savian didn't like it, but he decided to follow. It sucked even more than he began coughing again.

Clint and the others spent all night down in that hole after meeting a blonde man. Regardless of their situation, it did keep them away from the walkers from the time being. None of them were happy about it though. They all felt like animals being locked in a cage ready to be in a zoo. Clint was the one especially upset about the situation. He kept thinking about Karin, but this damn trench was holding him back from finding her. They were all beginning to feel dehydrated. The only sounds they could hear were two men arguing about something above them. One was a blonde male, the one they met last night, and the other was a Chinese male with a Mohawk.

The Chinese male screamed "What are we supposed to do with these people Bailey? Just feed them like three times a day and keep them as pets?"

"No I'm not saying that. I just haven't figured out what to do with them yet is all David," Bailey replied.

"We should just feed them to the biters," David replied.

"We don't kill the living David, not if they haven't proven a threat to us yet," he replied.

Down in the trench Amanda desperately tried to hear what the men were talking about. She couldn't hear what they were talking about that well. It was just a lot of yelling and screaming, and it began to worry her. She slide back down to the bottom, seeing both Clint and Wesley wait to hear what she has to say, while Andy just sat on his ass sharpening his boomerang.

"Did you hear anything?" Wesley asked.

"Just a lot of screaming. These guys might be dangerous," she replied.

Clint punched to mudded walls, replying "I don't have time for this bullshit. I need to find Karin."

"You're going to have to wait then Clint," Andy replied. He stood up.

"Do you know how long that could be Andy? These guys might kill us. We ran out of ammo yesterday and we have nothing to defend ourselves with," Clint replied.

"So you're suggesting that if we do manage to get out of here, you're going to run off into the forest with no ammunition in your gun and no weapon to protect you?" Andy asked. Clint stood there with a blank look on his face. "And besides, they didn't take all our weapons," Andy said as he showed everyone his sharpened boomerang.

"What are you gonna do with that?" Amanda asked.

"Well if they try anything then I'll just…" Andy said before being interrupted. The caged door on the top opened up. Two men, both white males with facial hair appeared. They dragged a girl up to them and threw hear in the trench, and then closed the door again. She was brunette, skinny, and very attractive. The group just stood there, staring down at this new face.

"We should head back to the highway," Phillip said.

"I agree, maybe everyone has regrouped there except us," Hannah said.

"Okay Phillip, just lead us to the highway then," Tristan said.

Phillip looked around in every direction, and truth be told, he didn't know how to get to the highway from where they were. "Ok well I don't know which direction it's in," he replied.

"Yeah none of us do. From how dark it was last night with all the walkers attacking us, we'd have better luck finding a needle in a hay stack then finding that highway again," Tristan replied.

"Then what are we supposed to do?" Hannah asked.

"Well to be honest we don't have a lot of options. In fact my guess is we only have two. Stay here, and have the slimmest chance of everyone finding us. Or we travel on foot. Maybe somewhere near here there's a town with cars. Maybe even people that can help us," he replied.

"You really think it's a good idea staying here?" Phillip asked.

"You clearly missed my point. We're travelling on foot," Tristan replied.

"What? Tristan it's too dangerous. Do you know how many walkers we've seen around these mountains? We should just try to find out luck back to the highway and to our vehicles," he replied.

"Let's assume we do find the highway. What if the herd is still there? You did say this place was crawling with walkers did you not?" Phillip didn't respond.

"Alright, let's start walking down this way," Tristan said. Phillip didn't like following orders from Scott. Ever since the day they first met he has questioned his leadership abilities. With him pointing a gun at his face, walking through a collapsing building in Chicago, and splitting up the group when entering the mountains, he kept losing a grasp as to why Scott trusts him so much. Phillip just kept making a fist, hoping one day he could get even.

The waiting room of a hospital is something that feels solitary to anyone waiting to be called in, even if they shared the room with countless others. Savian sat in the middle of the room, joined by a mother with her two children, and an older man who sat in the corner, leaving Savian to his thoughts. He was hoping that this would be over fast, and he could be out of this place soon. He never liked hospitals. Never mind the fact that he probably couldn't afford any medications the doctor wanted to give him. The lady at the desk called out, "Mr. Sills." Savian got up and walked to the office.

The doctor looked like he knew what he was doing. He was an older man, with his hair thinning out and a clean shaven face. He looked up from his papers when Savian entered. "Mr. Sills, please have a seat," he said.

Savian pulled out the chair on the other side of the desk. He looked around the office. He had a multitude of awards and degrees it looked like but he remembered that he wanted this to be fast. "So, what's going with me Dr. Turner?"

Dr. Turner shifted in his seat. "Well Mr. Sills, what I'm about to tell you may come as I bit of a shock so I'm going to ask that you remain calm. You have lung cancer."

The air seemed as though it went still. A long, droning buzz rang in Savian's head. Lung cancer? No that can't be right. Savian hadn't even realized he said those words out loud.

"Now," the doctor replied, "We caught it pretty early, we're lucky you came to us when you did. We can still save this if we can get you into treatment right away."

Savian moved to the edge of his seat. "No. I can't afford treatment. Not in my best dreams. I... I just can't."

Dr. Turner sighed with remorse. "I suggest in the meantime you speak with your insurance company, and we'll see you back here in a few weeks I hope."

Savian sat there, wanting to say more, but didn't know what he could. He got up, thanked the man, and then walked out. As he walked, through the waiting room, and down the halls towards the exit, he couldn't think. The droning buzz had taken over his head and he couldn't form a rational thought.

Savian was gazing down at the mountains. He never until now realized how beautiful they could be when up close like this. He was also admiring the forests and the wind blowing through them. That was quickly interrupted though once he heard a walker coming towards him. Savian took out his knife, ready to strike back; however the walker was already dead after he heard the sound of a shotgun shell. It was obviously Scott, and once again, Savian was unimpressed. "You don't always have to use a gun Scott that just attracts walkers."

"It was the heat of the moment Savian, in this world you have to do things fast if you wanna stay alive, remember?" he replied.

"Just like how you used that rock that one time?" Savian replied. Scott sarcastically chuckled, and decided to just ignore Savian. Savian began to cough again.

"Savian really, what's with all the coughing lately?" Molly asked.

"It's just a cold I swear," he replied.

"Seems to be more than that," Mary said.

"When we get to my camp we can give you some medication we have. We got anything that'll help get rid of that nasty cough of yours," Matias replied.

Savian looked down to his hand, seeing the blood that covered it. He replied "Well for some reason I highly doubt that."

Savian sat at the piano, playing the keys with a sadness he had not previously known. Roughly four hours had passed since he received his diagnosis. He knew the doctor would probably want him to take a few days off of work, but that was a luxury he could not afford. After he finished the song, he tried to thank the crowd, but couldn't get the words past his coughing. Feeling saddened, he walked to Stone's office.

Upon entering he saw Stone sitting at his desk as usual, smoking cigarettes and sorting a little pile of money, at least the little this club made each night. "Boss," Savian began. "I need to talk to you about something."

"Sit down." Stone gestured to the chair. "What is it?"

Savian sat down. "Stone, look I... I gotta get paid more. I'm here every night and I think I deserve it."

Stone looked shocked for a moment, and then began to laugh. This irritated Savian a bit, but he kept going. "Please sir. I, I have lung cancer and have no good way of paying for treatment. I need this."

"Savian. I'm really sorry to hear that, and I wish you the best. But you know I can't do that. What with the club I'm paying for and all our employees, including you. There's just nothing I can do for you, I'm sorry. There's your pay."

Savian picked up the envelope and opened it as he turned towards the door. A whole seventy bucks. At least he could eat for the week he thought. Then he walked out, and left into the night. As he walked, he became aware of the tears streaming down his face, and felt the laughter of the teens wandering the street, as though they were mocking him.

Savian wiped the blood away on his jeans, making sure no one could notice what he was hiding. He began coughing again, and this time it brought him down to his knees. Molly ran over to him, grabbing his shoulder through affection, but he just shoved her away. "Okay Savian there is something seriously wrong with you. You could die from this," she said.

Savian began laughing extremely hard while coughing at the same time. "After all this, I just die from an abominable cough, that would just be great," he replied as he continued laughing.

Mary walked up to Scott, whispering "There is something seriously wrong with him; he might not make it that much farther."

"We need to get to this camp of theirs, and fast by the sounds of," he replied. Scott wiped his eyes. They were beginning to get soar. He and everyone else were starting to feel the extreme exhaustion that the mountains had been causing them. Once Scott opened his eyes again, that's when the sweat really starting to drip down his neck.

Walkers came up from behind Savian and Molly, and neither of them had noticed. Scott ran towards the both of them, screaming "Behind you!" Molly turned around, noticing the walker breathing down her neck. She was caught off guard and fell to the ground while screaming. Scott ran up to her, swinging his shotgun to the walker in front of Molly. He loaded his weapon, putting down two more walkers approaching. He picked Savian off the ground, shouting "C'mon we need to go."

They all ran up to Mary and Matias, and Scott shouted "Matias, how far is your camp from here!"

"About another two miles," he replied.

More walkers appeared in front of them. "Ah shit. Alright everybody run!" Scott screamed. They began running for their lives again, hoping that this camp might be their only safe haven left.

The girl stood up in front of everybody in the trench. This was someone nobody has seen before. The first person to ask a question was Amanda. "Who are you, are you okay?"

The girl responded, "Yeah I'm fine, assholes just threw me in as all. I see you guys are in the same situation."

"Why are you in here?" Wesley asked.

"I was running away from a few biters, then these guys showed up, grabbed me, next thing I know is I'm in here talking to you people. What about you?" she asked.

"We stopped on a highway a few miles from here. We were forced to run into the forests," Andy replied.

"What are your names?" the girl asked. Everybody introduced themselves very kindly to the girl. They all seemed to trust her. "I'm Naomi," she said. "So where did you guys come from?" Naomi asked.

"We were in Chicago a week ago, but we were forced to leave," Amanda said.

"The four of you entering a big city like that? It's a miracle you got out safely," she replied.

"There were twelve of us. We got separated back on the highway," Wesley replied.

"How did the twelve of you manage to get split up?" Naomi asked.

"Half the group went out looking for resources we might find. Right when they came back, the herd arrived," Amanda said.

"So you have no idea where the rest of your group is?" she asked.

"No!" Clint screamed. "And one of those other eight is my girlfriend. I would appreciate if you would help us get out of here," he said.

Naomi looked around, seeing all the guns on the ground. "You guys have guns, why don't you just use those on them?"

"We ran out of ammo," Andy replied. "However, I still got this," he said, showing her his boomerang.

"A boomerang?" she asked, wondering how something like that could be used as a weapon.

Andy tucked it behind his jeans, replying "hey trust me I'd rather use this tool than any other guy." Andy turned around to the rest of the group. Naomi stared at the boomerang he had tucked away.

"Your weapon, not mine," she replied. She grabbed the boomerang out of Andy's pants. He turned around and was a moment away from attacking her, before she pulled out a pistol on him. She pointed it to everyone's face, saying "Don't try anything, alright?" Everybody stood still. Andy was infuriated with this woman now.

She yelled "Logan! Brandon! Let me out now." The cage opened, and down fell a rope. She latched onto it while still pointing her gun at the group. She was lifted off the ground and back out of the hole. Her last words were "toodles," before she was out of sight.

Andy turned back around. Everyone could see how furious he was. The only thing someone could say at this point was "What do we do now?" and everyone was looking at Wesley with complete annoyance.

Tristan Phillip and Hannah had been travelling for a good two hours. Not one walker had appeared to them yet, but for some reason they felt like that wouldn't last. Phillip had been giving Tristan a dirty look throughout the entire trip. Phillip didn't trust Tristan a single bit, and he personally thought he would get him killed. Hannah however did not mind talking to Tristan. "So Tristan, you and Scott own a bar I hear?" she asked.

"Owned a bar. It was called the Finis, and we didn't attract that many customers, it wasn't even inside the town," he replied.

"Sounds like a real shitty bar then," Phillip said. Tristan looked at Phillip with discomfort.

"So is that what you guys did after the military?" Hannah asked.

"Pretty much yeah. Managing a bar is much easier than shooting bullets all day long at people trying to kill you. Funny thing is I thought I was done with guns after that. Then all of this happened." The talking became silent then. The discussion about the apocalypse always turns the discussion in the other direction.

Hannah stopped walking for a moment, and started admiring the mountains. She always thought mountains were beautiful before, but actually glancing at them made her think that the world hasn't changed all that much. "It's really beautiful here, don't you guys think?" she asked. Tristan and Phillip both stopped walking and listened to her. She turned around, saying "It's almost as if nothing has changed," before Tristan noticed the walker behind her.

"Hannah behind you!" Tristan screamed. She turned around, screaming. She took out the machete Andy gave her as fast as she could. She was hesitant, but she managed to stab him all the way through the stomach. The walker was still approaching her. She let go of the machete and began backing away. She tripped down on twig, falling flat on her back, gazing at the walker about to eat her for dinner. She closed her eyes.

Tristan fired a round from his revolver, and the walker was silenced instantly. Hannah opened her eyes again, feeling relieved. Tristan walked up to the walk, and pulled out the machete. He walked up to Hannah, and said "I don't think Andy would have given you this if he didn't want you to use it properly Hannah. I mean did Sean not tell you anything about surviving?" before he handed it to her.

The sound of Tristan mentioning Sean made Hannah depressed very quickly. She hadn't heard his name in while, and truth be told, she was already beginning to forget him. She began to tear up. Phillip noticed Hannah was upset, so he said "Tristan get off her back."

"I'm just saying, you need to eventually learn how to defend yourself in this world," he replied.

"Yeah well not all of us are military trained like you are jackass," Phillip replied.

Tristan walked up to Phillip, looking him dead in the eye replying "What exactly is your problem with me Phillip?"

"Ever since the day I met you, you've proven to be nothing but a total threat to us. For god's sake, the first person you saw in the streets you shot at. And you broke Clint's nose. Maybe no one else can see it, but I can. Your leadership is a liability Tristan."

"You see me that much of a threat Phillip? I was on my own for about a month during the start of this damn apocalypse. I was looking for Mary. And when I see someone who isn't her, I see them as a threat," he replied.

"So your motto is shoot first ask questions later? Is that what they teach you in the military? Believe it or not Tristan, but in this world, people aren't a threat anymore. Walkers, that's the real threat, and it's about time you get that through your head," Phillip replied, before he walked away.

"People aren't a threat anymore," kept echoing inside Tristan head. He looked at the crow pin again, remembered Connor's final words. "They will kill you all," also echoed in his head again. He put the pin back in his pocket, and then handed Hannah her machete. He lifted her off the ground. "Sorry for what I said before," Tristan apologized.

"Don't worry about it," Hannah replied. The two of them began walking again, admiring the mountains.

The smell of cheap Chinese food filled the apartment room, and the sound of Bob Dylan's voice poured through the CD player as Savian sat alone on his couch, food and drink on the coffee table as he ate in silence. He was wondering what he could do with his life now that he was given his death sentence. Not much he could do. Bide his time until his cancer took him, he thought. "Stone's never going to give me a raise, even when I need it most that son of a bitch," he told himself. He finished his food as Dylan's vocals sang confessed painfully, "Times they are a changin'."

Savian had a shower then went to get changed for work. He wore the only nice suit he owned. When he looked in the mirror he was able to see the wrinkles in his shirt and pants but he couldn't care less. The last twenty four hours had been hell for him, and right now he just wanted this night to be done with. Walking out of his door, he heard one final set of lyrics which cried, "I don't wanna hurt, there's so much in this world to make me bleed." Then he abandoned his home.

Walking in the setting sun Savian felt the urge not to go to work. To ask a passing driver for a ride, and leave this god forsaken place. He had grown tired of Stone, and singing at that awful club every night only to make so little that he couldn't afford treatment to save his own life. He pulled himself out of his own thoughts and looked around the streets. They seemed unusually deserted and empty. Like the entire world had decided to stay home today, leaving Savian alone to his own devices once again. This angered him, but also made him think about what could put seemingly an entire city in hibernation. He thought he might not like the answer. And as he walked, he thought that he might find what more there was in this world that could make him bleed

The group ran as fast as they could from the walkers approaching from behind. They all had put a few of them down, beside Savian and Matias. In the condition Savian was in he could barely run, let alone fight against walkers, and Matias himself had no weapon. Savian ran, but a walker came out of the trees in front of him. Savian was forced to run in a different direction. Scott turned around and noticed where Savian was going. "Dammit. Savian!"

Savian ran into an opened area surrounded by trees. In front of him were five walkers. He turned around noticing the other one was just behind him. He was beginning to panic. He ran to the side, but he was completely trapped by the six walkers circling him. He was pushed up against a tree. He began coughing out some more blood again. He looked up at the walkers, thinking his time has finally come.

A walker was put down from the sound of a shotgun blast that moment. Savian turned, noticing Scott came from behind him. He ran in front of Savian towards the five remaining walkers. He kicked one in the knee, causing him to kneel down. He took out his bowie knife and stabbed it in the eye. He looked up noticing the four walkers coming towards him. He threw his knife, managing to get one in the eye again. Savian's jaw dropped. Scott fired another round from his shotgun, killing another walker. He fired again, but this time he ran out of ammo. He swung his shotgun, killing one of the two remaining walkers. He grabbed the final walker to the collar and pushed it against the tree. He began beating his fist against its head, managing to kill it after the third swing.

Savian looked around; noticing Scott single handed took out six walkers without help from anyone. Savian at that moment realized that Scott may do things aggressively, but it does keep everybody alive. Scott walked up to Savian. He looked him in the eye, saying "Maybe you don't like the way I do things man, but hey, just look at the results." Savian smiled. "C'mon we need to get back to everyone.

Scott and Savian headed back from where they came, noticing Molly and Mary took out all the walkers that attacked them. Scott walked up to group, telling them he ran out of ammo. Molly and Mary as well ran out of ammunition, and it began to worry Scott. He asked Matias, "How much farther is your camp?"

He replied "Bout a quarter mile from here." Savian began to cough again.

"Alright everyone, if we're going to get to this camp we need to do it ASAP," Scott replied. The group began running again.

Phillip distanced himself from Tristan and Hannah a little bit. He did not want to be near Tristan right now, he compared him to a black cat that just crossed his path. Tristan himself was beginning to get annoyed with Phillip lack of trust towards him. That day in Mary's hometown, Tristan wishes he could take it back. "He'll eventually trust you," Hannah said.

"Do you trust me?" Tristan asked.

"No, but I respect the way you do things," she replied. Tristan laughed a little bit. They both heard Phillip scream, and then noticed he fell down a hill he couldn't notice.

"Shit," Tristan said. They both ran up to where Phillip fell. He didn't fall to far, maybe thirty feet or so. Tristan screamed "Phillip! Are you alright?"

"Yeah I'm fine, I just didn't see this coming as all," he replied.

"Just stay there, we'll get down there and help you somehow," Hannah shouted. Phillip nodded, laying his back against the dry mud behind him. He heard something groaning. He looked in front of him, noticing the three walkers that appeared. He screamed.

"Dammit," Tristan said. Phillip was trapped between the three walkers, screaming for help. Tristan took out his revolver and began sliding down the hill. He stood beside Phillip, and began firing his rounds. It didn't even take Tristan half a minute for him to take out all the walkers. He turned back to Phillip and asked, "You okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine," Phillip replied with annoyance. He didn't like how it was Tristan who came to save him. Hannah slid down the hill, standing beside the both of them. "Alright well I guess we're travelling this way from now on," Tristan said.

"So I guess that bitch is working for those guys then huh," Amanda said.

"Oh gee you think so?" Andy sarcastically asked. "Bitch took my damn boomerang."

"Just how the hell are we supposed to get out of her god dammit!?" Clint screamed. After, the caged door above them randomly opened. The entire group was confused. Again randomly, a rope was tossed inside.

Naomi appeared above them, replying "Climb up." The group began climbing up one by one. Once they were all on proper ground again, they faced three people. One being Naomi, one being the man they met last night, and this new fellow with a beard. Naomi said "Sorry about before, I had to make sure you guys weren't dangerous, you understand right?

"Crystal clear," Wesley said sarcastically.

"That's great then, I'm Bailey. This here is Logan, and I believe you've already been introduced to Naomi?" Bailey said.

"Yeah, she's a real charmer alright," Clint said. "Anyways, we need to go find our friends."

"We can discuss that later. Right now though we'd like you to meet the rest of our group, follow me," Bailey said. The group began to follow Bailey down the hill towards their camp, everybody except Andy, who was stopped by Naomi.

She took out his boomerang, saying "Sorry I took this." She handed it to him. "Not like it would help anybody anyways," she said while blinking at him. Andy began making a fist from her annoyance.

David was sitting down eating from a bowl with Brandon, just minding their own business. He looked up, noticing Bailey and the new group were all walking down the hill. He threw his bowl on the ground, aggressively saying "Christ!" He began to run up, also hearing Brandon say "David wait!"

Bailey and everyone else entered the camp, seeing David approach them. "Bailey what the fuck is this?!" he shouted.

"They're not a threat, you don't have to worry about them," he replied.

"Don't worry about them? Did you not see the heat these people were carrying when they got here? If you can't see how dangerous these people are then you're as stupid as you look Bailey."

"David you're just going to have to trust me on this one, ok?" Bailey asked.

"When have I ever trusted you?" David said.

Clint began walking away from the group. He needed to find Karin, and didn't want to waste time listening to two strangers argue. "Clint where are you going?" Amanda asked.

"I don't have time for this bullshit, I need to find Karin," Clint yelled. Clint kept walking, but he stopped immediately when a bullet shot the ground right under his feet. He turned around, noticing the shot came from David, who was holding a P99.

"David what do you think you're doing?" Naomi asked.

"None of you idiots might see it, but I don't trust these new fellows here," David replied.

"You don't need to shoot us, were not a threat," Wesley replied.

"Oh yeah, who the fuck are you to tell me who's a threat and who's not?"

"David, calm down," Bailey said.

He pointed his pistol directly at Baileys face, screaming "Don't you tell me to calm down!" He walked over to Clint. Facing him, he shouted "If you wanna leave, you're going to have to get past me first!" David heard the sound of someone loading a gun, and also heard someone from behind say "Oh I don't think so."

He turned around; noticing five people were behind him. One of them was Matias. The rest, two females, one brother, and a redhead packing some major heat. Amanda noticed Scott in front of him, and she immediately ran towards him. Scott responded, "Amanda? Oh god," before he hugged her.

Bailey turned to Andy, asking "These your people?" and Andy nodded. Everybody ran up to Scott and the others, extremely happy to see some familiar faces again. Clint went over to ask Scott, "Where's Karin?"

"I don't know," he replied.

"What about Tristan? Is he here with you guys?" Mary asked.

"No unfortunately," Amanda said.

"What about Hannah and Phillip?" asked Wesley.

"They're not here either," Molly replied. Although the group felt considered with where the other four of them were, they were glad to see their friends again. Scott especially was happy, he was glad he could hold Amanda in his arms again.

Tristan Hannah and Phillip were walking for about another hour or so, still not finding anything. They were beginning to tire out, and all of their feet hurt. Tristan opened up his revolver, noticing he only had two shots left out of the six. He began to worry, not for himself, but for Phillip and Hannah. Hannah is still learning how to fight against walkers, and Phillip, even though he just saved his life, still doesn't trust him.

"Okay Tristan, let's face it, we're completely lost here," Hannah said.

"What's going to happen when it gets dark?" Phillip asked.

"Just stay calm, I'll figure something out," Tristan replied.

"Well if you're going to do something, do it fast," Phillip said.

Tristan looked around, not fully sure of what the group should do next. He looked up to the mountains. He was thinking that he has without a doubt run out of options for him and the group. He feared that he wouldn't be able see Mary again, not to mention that Karin was out there completely alone now. Tristan was about to give up hope, before he turned and noticed a familiar face pop out of the woods.

It was Murray, at least it was the image of Murray, and this time he was reanimated. Tristan was beginning to think he was crazy. He's seen Murray Nicole and Sean all appear out of nowhere, and he didn't know why. Murray began using his finger to tell Tristan to follow him. Tristan was a little sceptical about whether he should trust a ghost or not, but considering everything that has happened today, it may be his only option. "Let's go this way, it'll be safe," Tristan said.

"How do you know?" Phillip asked.

"I just know," Tristan replied. Hannah and Phillip began to follow Tristan, while without them know he was following a complete ghost.

The night had dragged on too long. After finishing one of his songs Savian glanced at his watch and saw that it was only a little after midnight. He sighed, realizing he still had to stay here for another two hours. He told the audience that he would be back on in fifteen minutes, and went backstage to use the washroom. He coughed a couple times and collected himself for a few moments before going back outside.

When he exited the bathroom, he thought he heard what sounded like screaming, he stopped and listened. It continued, and it seemed like everyone out in the club was panicking. He looked down the hall at Stone's office. Empty. That seemed unusual. Savian only ever saw Stone in his office and always felt like the man lived in his chair. He walked towards the stage as the noise continued to escalate. He walked out and saw a sight to which he could not believe his eyes.

Throughout the club, people were panicking, screaming and crawling over each other to get away from; Savian didn't know what to call them. They looked like people, but their flesh was decaying and blood dripped from their mouths as they bit into the flesh of the ones panicking. Savian stood still for a moment or two, simply watching the chaos unfold itself.

Across the room he saw Stone. Or what was left of Stone as he was ripped apart by the attackers. Seeing that snapped Savian out of his trance. He looked around for an exit, and realized where on was and ran backstage. As he turned, one of the creatures grasped his ankle. He screamed, kicking and flailing, trying anything to get free. Finally, after swinging his own leg hard enough, the creature's arm ripped off, as though it had been dead for a long time. Savian scrambled to his feet and ran off through the back halls and was out the door just as fast.

As he came out of the alley towards the front he saw the monsters on the streets and gravitating towards the club. He turned quickly and ran off. As he ran he began to wonder what future days would bring. He looked back one last time, and continued to run into the wild.

Savian sat down on a cut off tree log within the camp. Everyone seemed nice, besides David of course. Savian was constantly coughing again, and it was really beginning to bug him. No one in the group knows about his lung cancer, and truth be told he doesn't want anybody to know right now. At first he saw his cancer as a monster that crawled through his entire body, but now because of the abominable creatures this world as created, that monster would be an angel to him. He was glad he could go out naturally instead of being torn to pieces by walkers, and if he told anybody then they would just desperately find some way to save him.

Matias walked up to Savian, holding cough syrup. "Here, I know it's not much, but I think it'll help that nasty cough you got going on there," he said.

Savian laughed and replied "Thank you," before Matias walked away. Savian began chugging down the cough medicine as quickly as he could.

Scott was staring down at the forests, and up at the mountains. He was happy to find Amanda again, but there was still the pressing matter of Tristan and the others. He was going to find them, and he made a promise to himself that he could do that. Mary appeared from behind him. "Glad that you found Amanda?" she asked.

"Yeah very," he replied. "Do you trust these new people Mary?" he asked.

"Some of them, not all of them. That David guys seems like a threat, but then again, so are you," she said.

Scott laughed. He glared down at the mountains again. "I'm going to find Tristan Mary, I promise you that," he said.

"You're not going anywhere without me," Said Clint as he appeared from behind. "I need to find Karin."

Scott turned and faced both of them, saying "I promise the two of you that I will find them. They're going to be okay."

Tristan continuously followed Murray, wondering where it would lead him. Both Hannah and Phillip were really beginning to get confused as to where Tristan was leading them. Hannah asked a few times "Do you know where you're going Tristan?" and he always responded with "No, but my instincts tell me this way." He kept following Murray, until he leaded them to where he hoped he would.

It was a town of some sort, and it seemed deserted. If they could climb the fence in front of them, then it would be easily accessible to enter. Both Hannah and Phillip were happy as well. They were both thinking that maybe there's some food and supplies in the town, or even better, a car. They all ran towards the town. They carefully climbed the fences that covered the alley leading into the town.

Once they were on the other side. They quickly ran down the alley, ready for whatever they could scavenge. Hannah was the one taking the lead, while Tristan was yelling "Hannah wait up; don't distance yourself from the group like that!" Hannah turned the corner, noticing what she found was not something she wanted to see.

The entire streets were covered with walkers. Tristan and Phillip also turned the corner to notice what they would have to deal with. The three of them hid behind the corner of the building down the alley so the walkers couldn't see them. Phillip said "Oh this is going to be real good." Tristan was breathing heavily, wondering why Murray would bring him to a place like this.


End file.
